Bitcoin Bluz

Bitcoin Bluz opens as an approximately $300,000, custom Mercedes Benz SLS GT Roadster is seamlessly stolen from inside a high-end, Atlanta car dealership in the night. Just days before the theft, Annette Dupart, a twenty-seven year old CPA with a concealed weapon permit and a black belt in karate, had arrived on the scene. Working for an automobile consulting firm, Annette was hired to audit the dealership. Absentee owners had become concerned about three, earlier, high-end car purchases, all made under mysterious circumstances with Bitcoins, an internet currency, suggesting money laundering. After the Roadster’s theft and two, shocking murders, Annette, with the help of a programmer named Vijay Singh, becomes enmeshed in a strange world of computer gaming, avatar-costumed suspects, embezzled Bitcoins, and international intrigue. Can Annette discover who is behind the anonymous car purchases, who stole the Bitcoins and from whom, and who has the stolen Roadster before more people die?

Patrick Emmett has written a good mystery. First, Annette Dupart is a great character. Petite, strong and no-nonsense, Annette is reminiscent of a younger version of Sue Grafton’s popular Kinsey Millhone. Second, as a retired automotive manufacturing executive, Emmett clearly knows the world of which he writes. Furthermore, Bitcoin virtual currency and Bitcoin mining are not yet common knowledge. Emmett does a good job of making that world comprehensible to his readers. The mystery itself is also solid. While readers will have a general idea of who is probably at fault from the beginning, the actual details will remain unclear until the big reveal in the last few chapters. Emmett even provides a subtle bit of romance in the form of a tall, blond FBI agent. Bitcoin Bluz is an enjoyable mystery, and fans of strong, female sleuths will be left hoping that this is not Annette’s last adventure.