The USS Hampton SSN 767 quietly floated unseen one hundred fifty-two feet below the ocean’s surface. Its task for the past six months has been reconnaissance and surveillance. The biggest danger the crew faced was running out of olives for their pizza. That all changed one morning, four days before the end of the Hampton’s tour. Halfway through the Captain’s first morning coffee, every system on … on the submarine shut down. No navigation, no communication, and no defensive measures. Within minutes, the sub began a terrifying descent through the murky greys and blacks of the deep Atlantic and settled to the ocean floor off the coast of Cuba and perilously close to the sub’s crush depth. When it missed its mandated contact, an emergency call went out to retired Navy intel officer, Zeke Rowe, top of his field before a botched mission left him physically crippled and psychologically shaken. Rowe quickly determined that the sub was the victim of a cybervirus secreted inside the sub’s top secret operating systems. What Rowe couldn’t figure out was who did it or how to stop it sinking every other submarine in the American fleet.
Kali Delamagente is a struggling over-the-hill grad student who entered a DARPA cybersecurity competition as a desperate last hope to fund a sophisticated artificial intelligence she called Otto. Though her presentation imploded, she caught the attention of two people: a terrorist intent on destroying America and a rapt Dr. Zeke Rowe. An anonymous blank check to finish her research is quickly followed by multiple break-ins to her lab, a hack of her computer, the disappearance of her three-legged dog, and finally the kidnapping of her only son.
By all measures, Rowe and Delamagente are an unlikely duo. Rowe believes in brawn and Delamagente brains. To save the America they both love, they find a middle ground, guided with the wisdom of a formidable female who died two million years ago.
About the Author:
J Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. You can find her book at her publisher’s website, Structured Learning.
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Wow! This book delivers a complex mix of academia, covert ops, terrorist plots, and artificial intelligence. Once started, I couldn’t stop reading. Murray populates her espionage tale with a roster of characters that include an ex-Navy SEAL–now college professor–two brilliant grad students, an eccentric mathematician, and a Middle Eastern terrorist with deep pockets to name just a few of the highly diverse cast.
Kali Delamagente has invented an AI to track the evolution of prehistoric man. But “Otto” is capable of much more. In the wrong hands, Kali’s cutting-edge technology can decimate U.S. submarines. She attracts the attention of a mysterious unseen donor who funds her research, as well the FBI. Enter Dr. Zeke Rowe, ex-SEAL and Navy Intel officer who pursued a career in academia after a failed mission left him with permanent injuries.
Working together, Delamagente and Rowe struggle to remain one step ahead of a terrorist network that has infiltrated most every aspect of Kali’s life. Friends and colleagues are not always who they seem. As the stakes grow higher, Kali’s lab is broken into, her dog vanishes, a new friend is abducted, and her son is kidnapped. The book rockets to an explosive end, but the journey there is alternately a slow burn and a roller coaster of twists and turns.
The research that obviously went into the book—from the origins of prehistoric man, to the workings of submarines, intelligence agencies, and military protocol—is mind-boggling. I’ve already purchased book two of the Delamagente/Rowe espionage thrillers and look forward to three when it is released. 5 Whopping big stars!
A fast-paced thriller steeped in intrigue and palaeoanthropology.
To hunt a sub by J. Murray mixes military intrigue, the world of academia and a burgeoning romance between an ex-SEAL come professor and an upcoming academic who developed an AI to track the evolution of humans. Oh, and there is a terrorist plot as well.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started reading this book. From the cover of the book one would expect it would be solely based on the navy, but on reading the blurb, there was much more to this story. For me, I particularly enjoyed the scenes where the AI—Otto, a software program that was developed to locate and identify the evolution and migration of humans from Africa—I found interesting and captivating. The author has clearly done a lot of research into palaeoanthropology, which is evident in the story, as well as into the machinery and workings of US Defence.
The main plot was about a jihadi terrorist intent on destroying US submarines and in turn, the US Defence force. The intertwining sub-plots helped move the story at a brisk pace, there was always something happening, and I learnt a lot about submarines!
Overall, I really enjoyed this story and am about to start book 2 of the Rowe and Delamagente series. Readers who have taste for intrigue and military style stories, will be sweetly surprised by this book.
I read To Hunt A Sub after its sequel Twenty Four Days. However, this did not spoil my enjoyment of either book.
To Hunt A sub introduces Zeke Rowe, a retired navy SEAL, who becomes part of a team tasked with uncovering a terrorist plot to introduce a cybervirus into American Trident submarines.
Kali Delamagente is developing an AI called Otto and becomes embroiled in the plot, when the full potential of Otto is realised by both the terrorists and the intelligence community. Kali learns who to trust when her only son is kidnapped.
To Hunt A Sub is a well crafted and researched thriller, with great characters and a superb plot.