Excellent thriller/mystery. Semi-cozy. Tanner, a coffee entrepreneur, accidentally picks up the laptop of a senator. The laptop contains top secret info on a govt. Big Brother spying operation. Tanner brings it to a reporter friend who is promptly dead (suicide, but we suspect murder). The senator's chief of staff, Will, wants the laptop back and will do anything to get it. Interesting in that NONE of the characters are stock villains or heroes. Both grow into their roles. Will becomes more ruthless; Tanner more resourceful. Chase scenes, hit-and-run, marriage and baby problems. Really a different mystery.
Follows Sadie and Sam (Mazer) from childhood to mid-thirties when both are feeling old and a bit out of it in the gaming world. Characters are well-rounded, develop throughout the novel in interesting way. Plot is involved but sensible. Not a single, "Oh, come on!" moment. The book could have been faster paced. Odd, since the main topic is video games which are not for their speed of engagement and Gabrielle Zevin clearly knows her video games. Recommended by Michael Connelly in an interview. He also has Bosch pick up the book in his novel, Resurrection Walk, as Bosch tails a possible witness to a crime as she moves through a bookstore. Sadie and Sam do not get together at the end, which is good. Marx killed by homophobic nutcase who really wants to kill Sam, but Sam isn't there. Marx is father of Sadie's child.
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