After four years on the straight and narrow, Russell Fitzpatrick has a boring job, the wrong woman, and an itch for something more. All he needs to get his life going again is a nudge in the wrong direction.
When he receives a cryptic email from a legendary and slightly deranged fellow hacker—his old friend, Charlie, whom he knows to be dead—he tries to tell himself it’s none of his concern. But the guy who stalks him across town at night, the two thugs waiting in the alley, and a ruthless FBI agent let him know his days are numbered if he doesn’t turn over the money Charlie stole.
The problem is, Russ doesn’t have it. As his enemies close in from all sides, Russ slowly unwinds the inner workings of his old friend’s paranoid mind and finds that Charlie left behind something worth much more than the money. And no one but him is onto it..
A smart, wholly engrossing cyber crime novel about a talented hacker trying to escape his past...Diamond successfully re-skins the timeless crime novel template about a small-time crook gone legit, only to find he can't escape his past. As you might expect, the temptations of money, love and the forbidden are nearly impossible to resist, and that makes for great tension. Impala is full of hard-hitting insights that ring true. Impala is a must-read for any thriller fan with a computer science-degree, and is highly recommended for the rest of us.
Mystery and thriller readers are in for a treat with Impala, a story in which a man trying to change his world battles forces which draw him back into the seedier side of life. Russell can't back down and can't let go of anything completely. Neither can the reader let go of the winding, compelling story that is Impala... Impala does a terrific job of crafting a gritty, savvy and devious protagonist who moves through his world with precision and personal angst. The result fine-tunes a personal story and thriller, bringing Russell's purposes and decisions to life in a series of events that make for a compelling, unexpected mystery that's hard to put down and satisfyingly complex to the end.
It took me exactly four pages to get drawn into Impala, and once caught up in the story, I couldn't let go... I didn't just enjoy a good read; I learned a few things about computer hacking too. A fast-paced, can't-put-down suspense story that will keep you guessing.
Impala is a fast-paced, page-turning, relentless story from start to finish... nothing will be the same for the protagonist by story's end. (5 stars)
[Diamond] gets all the little things right, as well as the big ones, in this riveting novel...A convincing, complex cyberthriller.
...fast-paced and suspenseful... Impala is filled with action and adventure, and the plot is clever and darkly humorous. I particularly enjoyed reading about the hackers' exploits and following Russ as he puzzles through the mystery of the key. Russ and Cali are grand characters, as is the legendary and reckless Mad Hatter. Impala is highly recommended. (5 stars)
Amazon.com named Andrew Diamond's Impala one of the ten best thrillers of September, 2016. A cyberthriller in the tradition of the classic crime novels of the 1950's, Impala follows the plight of hacker Russell Fitzgerald who finds himself on the run after receiving a stolen fortune. Kirkus calls the only self-published title on Amazon's best-of list a "riveting novel" that "gets all the little things right, as well as the big ones."
The Readers' Favorite International Book Award Contest featured thousands of contestants from over a dozen countries, ranging from new independent authors to NYT best-sellers and celebrities.
Readers' Favorite is proud to announce that "Impala" by Andrew Diamond won the Gold Medal in the Fiction - Mystery - General category.
You can learn more about Andrew Diamond and "Impala" at https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/impala where you can read reviews and the author’s biography, as well as connect with the author directly or through https://adiamond.me or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/adiamond.me.
IndieReader posted its list of the best indie books of 2016 to the Huffington Post yesterday. Impala made the list of the year's best in the Mystery/Thriller category.
