Ashley Kalagian Blunt, shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Award in 2024 for Dark Mode, takes readers to Winnipeg in the depths of winter for her next thriller Cold Truth. Once again, technology and its use and misuse plays a big part in driving the plot. Malware, phishing, identity theft and just the extent of personal information that we put online, all get explored in this tense, icy thriller.
Harlow Close runs a successful tour business in Winnipeg but it is a business that lives and dies on her social media presence and continuing good reviews. Harlow’s father goes missing on a freezing Winnipeg night and she almost dies having been knocked unconscious by intruders and left in the snow. Harlow is rescued by her sister Blaise and, despite assurances from the two detectives who show up that they have the investigation under control, starts to look into her father’s disappearance. At the same time, it appears that someone is trying to hire an assassin on the dark web to kill Harlow. Harlow’s search will reveal secrets not only about her father but about her own past and also will make her question everything that happens or that she sees online.
Cold Truth is, as its title suggests, an icy cold thriller. The freezing temperatures (flagged at the beginning of each chapter) add a level of difficulty to everything that happens outdoors from simple tasks like driving to trying to escape from a pair of inept killers. It is also a fascinating exploration of the amount of trust we put in things we see online, the information that other people can learn online and use and how easy it is to use that information to manipulate others. Some of the twists are a little predictable but by the time they land readers will be too invested in Harlow and her quest to care as the narrative builds to a teeth-chattering finale in the snow.
Cold Truth is another great technology-based thriller from Blunt. One that is anchored by a feisty, resourceful protagonist and uses the environment and history of Winnipeg to great effect. But behind the thrills and twists this is a series of cautionary tales about the use and abuse of the internet which, in the age of enhsittification of social media, cannot be timely enough.
Cold Truth by Ashley Kalagian Blunt
No Comments
Comments are closed.