Fiction Review: Fatal Transaction

Fatal Transaction, by W. Richard Lawrence is a Christian suspense novel.

Sara Beckwith is a computer programmer and hacker genius working for the bad guys. Her boss, Levy, has already made millions through a credit card scam, and he wants much more. Levy always gets his way. People who cross him quickly find themselves dead or worse—tortured slowly, until their brains turn to mush. Sara is aware that, when her job is over, he’ll do the same to her.

She plans to run—and to steal Levy’s money so she can live in style. Sara imbeds code deep, creates secret passwords, changes her identity, and moves Levy’s stolen money around and to her new accounts. She uses some of it to buy a ticket to Italy.

On the very day she’s going to leave, Levy's goons locate her. They rough her up, and Sara is miraculously rescued by Derry, an innocent young man who happens to be in the right place at the right time. He whisks her away in his car and takes her to his home, calling a friend who’s a nurse to attend to her injuries.

Meanwhile, Levy has everyone on his team looking for Sara.

What happens when Levy’s goons find Derry? Do they also get Sara? How does this end? You’ll have to read it for yourself!

This is a great book! It’s exciting and then some. It’s also clean with a Christian tone. I read the Kindle edition, which has a few subject-verb agreement problems (maybe four in the whole book). Otherwise, it’s well written. The author shows he really understands computers and computer crime. I found it fascinating. He effectively develops the characters of Sara and Derry, and some of the minor characters also have realistic depth to them. I really enjoyed Fatal Transaction. It’s the first I’ve read by W. Richard Lawrence. He’s written another novel, and I’ll be sure to check it out. 

Easily five stars.

Note: I wouldn’t recommend this book to younger teens. It covers some difficult subjects: rape, murder, and torture among them. It’s also fairly violent. It isn’t crudely written, though, and sexual sins, including rape, are stated but not explicit. If you’re very squeamish, you might want to skip this book. The torture is realistic.