Title: City of Schemes
Author: Bill Garwin
Publisher: Independently published
ISBN: B09531V83V
Pages: 308
Genre: Fiction / Crime / Thriller
Reviewed by: Jake Bishop

Read Book Review

Here’s the literary table Bill Garwin has set in a virtual feast of action, adventure, mayhem, murder, kidnapping, extortion, corruption, revelations, recriminations, hacking, hijinks, and hubris in his impressively imaginative novel, City of Schemes.

It’s a few years and an infinite number of gigabytes in the future. A large swath of Northern California is now Norcal, an area designated for experimentation and oversight by the U. S. Government. The foremost subject for inquiry is the legalization of formerly illicit drugs. Norcal is ground zero to see whether or not making such drugs legal will actually decrease addiction, health related illnesses, plus the various and sundry crimes associated with mind and body stimulants and/or sedatives. The primary tie that binds the residents of Norcal together is digital footprinting accomplished via embedded microchips. That and contact lenses which enable individuals to see replications before their eyes without the need for such antiquated irritants as screens. Remember, I said this was set in the future.

Anyway, it all begins with high tech coyotes smuggling a group of folk into Norcal. Within that group is single mother, Megan, and her autistic son, Nick. She thinks she’s on her way to a better life for her and more help for her son. But they are quickly kidnapped by unknown assailants and wind up in the hands of a drug lord. Drug lord you ask? How can there be drug lords when drugs are legal? Well, it turns out that the legal drugs, consumed in high-priced and plush drug lounges by the well-to-do, are out of range financially and underpowered chemically for good old-fashioned folk like indigents, the homeless, and Mr. and Mrs. everyman. Supplying their needs is a lucrative business. So much so that the drug lord is in need of a bookkeeper to make sure he’s not being robbed by the very people he sends out to sell his products. Megan is chosen to fill that bill and is unable to decline for fear of what the crime boss and his thugs will do to her son.

With all of the above as a basic set-up, rest assured that the overall plot is infinitely more complicated and filled with characters easy to love or hate depending on your ethical quotient. These include a hacker extraordinaire named Walrus who is determined to make information available to all and to rescuing Megan and Nick. But why? There is Charles, a hulking ex linebacker with a first-class brain who works for Walrus and will be the lynchpin in the hacker’s plan to free mother and son. But how? There’s also Crystal, an investigative reporter with built-in chutzpa that equals her dizzying intellect and her dazzling beauty. There’s Ray, a violent fellow who works for the drug lord but pines for Megan. There’s Vincent, perhaps an even more violent fellow who works for the dude who oversees the drug lord plus virtually every money-making enterprise, legal and illegal, within the boundaries of Norcal. His name is Brodrick and he’s the evil puppet master pulling strings with threats of reputation loss, freedom loss, income loss, limb realignment without anesthetic, even loss of life. He has his own incredible hacker, the hygienically challenged Percival, who can’t wait to cross cyber-swords with Walrus. But when? And what will be the final outcome?

Author Garwin possesses a vivid imagination, a penchant for jet-propelled storytelling, a seemingly encyclopedic reservoir of computer knowledge, and a rare gift for irony and understatement. He’s chosen to tell his tale via third person omnipotence plus a first person recount from Charles, the ex-footballer turned muscle with a moral compass. Garwin makes sure that no matter how deep readers get into technical jargon or escalating tension, they’re never more than a paragraph or two away from a funny one-liner. Chances are you won’t find a more capable, interesting or amiable guide to the future than this savvy scribe. Especially if you’re headed for the City of Schemes.