There is a promising series premise here, with a compelling villain and clever scenes of planning and executing an investigation, as this brisk, short novel moves between genres—thriller, romance, contemporary fiction. The authors blend tension and froth as Gracie and Bailey, working in their undercover life with their boyfriends, are portrayed as savvy, skilled covert ops who are committed to taking down the bad guys but also impulsive ”girls” (the narrator’s word) who need to be saved by the men in their lives. The mix at times is unstable, though. The plot calls for Gracie and Bailey to take advantage of men’s presumption that they’re silly and non-threatening, a fresh and fun twist, but Enigma Tracer doesn’t often allow these accomplished women to command these scenes as they take down their target.

More background material on the family and how this business came to be could have deepened reader engagement. Scenes of cutting-edge tech, surveillance, drone flights, and clever problem solving are contrasted with Gracie and Bailey blow-drying hair, picking out their outfits for their meeting with the villain, and—in a vital, revealing scene—telling off Gracie's brother, JJ, who also runs a cyber security org. The blend of genres and tones is tricky but audacious.

Takeaway: Brisk, frothy thriller mixing high-tech investigation and romance.

Comparable Titles: Kat Wheeler’s There Is No Cloud, Christopher Kerns’s Crash Alive.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A