Wired Truth: Vigilante Justice Thriller Series

I read a lot of books. Since retirement, I read about a book a day. In my lifetime, I have read thousands of books. I take my Kindle with me where ever I go and read every chance I get. If it is a really good book, I will stay up reading until I finish the book or just can’t keep my eyes open. There are a lot of good writers out there in the world with good ideas for plot lines that aren’t too cliched or done to death. However, my favorites don’t just string words together in a coherent manner, they are storytellers. A storyteller makes you care about their characters. They invite you into a hero/heroine that is human, complex, and someone you’d like to meet and befriend. A storyteller builds the story with each page, pulling you along to read just one more paragraph, one more page, one more chapter until you are at the end and you want to read more. As the story’s tension builds, the reader’s breath intensifies, the heart begins to race, and you are fully drawn into the pace of the story. Toby Neal is a storyteller of the best kind. She develops her characters as though they are real people, people you want to know. Even her ‘bad guys’ have developed personalities and back stories to explain their actions. Her plots are feasible. The arc of the story is plausible. Her characters relate to each other in authentic ways. Set in the Hawaiian Islands, she includes their history, their customs, their problems and their pleasures. Wired Truth, Neal’s latest in telling Sophie’s story takes place 2 years after her last book. Much has changed while the past still has a stronghold on Sophie’s heart and mind. Wired Truth introduces a new hunk of a man in her life as Sophie deals with her feelings for Alika, Connor and Jake. Stolen diamonds, a trip to San Francisco, and her daughter, Momi, all take her attention as she takes a break from being a CEO to working in the field again. Wired Truth can be read as a stand-alone story, but I highly recommend that you start from the beginning of Sophie’s journey. Reading the earlier books in order will give a greater depth of understanding and enjoyment to this installment. If I could give Wired Truth and Toby Neal 6 stars I would, but 5 will have to do.

Neal writes a richly detailed story, describing locations vividly and with very real characters you want as your own friends. The Wired series features Sophie Ang Smithson, a tech sleuth of Thai and American heritage, with a talent for creatively cursing in Thai. In Wired Truth, a more mature and settled Sophie is now CEO of private firm, Security Solutions. Called in to quietly investigate a diamond heist from a high-end auction house on Oahu, Sophie partners with Pierre Raveaux, who is fairly new to the firm. Raveaux brings not only an intriguing set of skills from his time as an investigator in France, but something that ignites sparks within Sophie. Following leads they've uncovered, the pair travel to San Francisco to another branch of the auction house, which also experienced a similar theft of diamonds. Sophie and Raveaux search in independent directions for the threads that weave the crimes together, each using their specialized abilities to uncover the answers. Woven within Wired Truth are glimpses of Pim Wat, Sophie's dangerous and deadly mother, held in Guantanamo Bay, and Pim's lover, the Master. In all of Neal's books, there are deep layers to each character, that unfurl much like a folding fan, as the story progresses. Sophie's life as a mother has more clarity, yet her love life remains unresolved and after two years without a relationship, she has begun to yearn for something more. Her heart still mourns the three men she has loved and apparently, lost. Wired Truth entwines many story elements from previous Wired books, both wrapping up aspects of her life, and also sending Sophie in new directions of hope and adventure. Neal has ended this addition to the Wired series with tantalizing hints of possibility that I look forward to reading in the next edition in the Wired series.

I was privileged to get an advanced readers copy of the book and here is my honest opinion. This is truly a great continuation of Sofies adventure. Sofie is more mature but not any less adventurous. There is also a new character in play which I truly liked and which hopefully will stay in later books in the series. Some of the old familiar characters get some long awaited clarity with their feelings/relationships if I may express it that way, for me this book was truly enjoyable for this particular reason among many others. As always I do enjoy great adventure, easy readable storyline, well developped characters, colorful settings for the story. It definitelly seems that story itself is far from finished which is a very good news :)