Received arc from Penguin Michael Joseph and Netgalley for honest read and review.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable read,and I really enjoyed this.
Centres around a CIA agent and her hunt for a serial killer. This was a great read and it had me hooked from the beginning.
Really good story and all characters were well written.

Scorpion by Christian Cantrell has everything that I love in books:
- a very smart scientist/analyst
- techy world on a boundary of sci-fi
- serial killer who's murdering people in really interesting ways
- badass female characters

I was hooked from the first pages and I was really involved in the story. It has all elements that I like, so it just sounded perfect. Series of murders are happening around the world, there's no pattern, nothing connects the victims, the selection doesn't make sense... the only thing is that the victims are being killed from the oldest to the youngest.
The killer escapes, and leaves 4 digit number on a body of each of the victims.

Quinn Mitchell is an analyst who survived a trauma of losing her daughter, she lives a quiet and safe life working for CIA... and suddenly she's chosen to hunt a serial killer. If someone can find a pattern where there isn't one - it's her!

I really liked the characters, they all had something loveable about them.

I found the technological ideas super interesting. I think the cool thing is that we don't really know how much of it is a science fiction and how much is a work in progress in some underground government labs :)

The only thing I'd say that I felt that this book should end around 2/3 when the killer was caught, it'd be a great closure. The rest of the book in my opinion would be a perfect intro to the 2nd book, because I must admit that the way how it was done here, it made me confused for quite a number of pages. That's the only reason why I didn't give it 5 stars.

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Thank you Net Galley and Michael Joseph for an early copy in exchange for an honest review

I found myself conflicted about the book. I found the long descriptions of the technical issues tedious - not my thing - but I felt that the story was different and clever. A completely new take on time.
I quite liked the characters and identified with the main character. I felt that I was meant to like the assassin and suspected that he was not as he first appeared.
I didn't realise that there was a sci fi aspect to the story but it was a much more subtle fantasy than many and seemed to be a very possible future.

Recommended - with the above reservations.

An absorbing and intelligent read with a good drama element.

The main character is in a race against time to prevent a serial killer striking again. The killer is leaving seemingly random numbers on the victims, and a CIA agent has to try to unspool the thought process behind them.

This in the context of temporal anomalies means both the killings and the numbers appear to be part of a larger context, in which the investigator herself may be a potential victim.

The book is set in the near future and is brilliantly conceived and plotted.

Well worth a read for anyone with a scientific, forensic or mystery solving mindset. Ì was hooked, and just when I thought everything had been resolved, was thrown by the plot spiralling off again. Great book.

This book surprised me in many ways as I was not sure if it was a the type of story I would enjoy being a techno thriller but I really liked it a lot. The story is complicated and I did at times find myself struggling with all the technical details but overall I let the things I didn’t quite grasp go over my head and let myself go with the flow.
It’s a complex and immersive read with some excellent characters that were all well crafted, set in the future this starts off with a race to find a very clever killer who seems to be killing random people whist leaving a number branded on their bodies.
Right from the start this is a book that goes hell for leather with one heck of a twist half way through and I enjoyed every minute but the last portion of the book I did find difficult to follow however I persevered and it was well worth the read.
So a good fun book with loads of interesting stuff going on it was different and compulsive and for me a 4 star read.
My thanks to NetGalley Penguin Michael Joseph UK for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I never usually read Sci Fi, but I found this fascinating. I’m also only into basic technology but what is described here in all the (not insignificant) detail seemed plausible and mesmerizing! Basically it is a cat and mouse serial killer thriller set in the future. Despite my caveats, I really enjoyed this; CIA Analyst against a killer who seemingly kills at random. A complex story that drew me in and didn’t want to let me go until the end. A really unusual and fresh take on the genre and I genuinely recommend it.

Welcome to the future. Christian Cantrell's new novel - by far his best to date - takes one to a world with nuclear terrorism and worse. The plot is complex. The science feels real rather than fiction. And the clock is ticking on a cat-and-mouse chase that is full of twists and turns and startling revelations.
This is speculative fiction at its very best: chillingly real glimpses of a future that draws closer every day. Not to be missed.

In a future timeline Quinn Mitchell, an analyst with the CIA is tasked to identify a serial killer, then sent on an international manhunt to find and stop him. On catching the killer she is shocked to find out who set the killer on his murder spree. Great read, but sometimes difficult taking in the technical language and gadgets of the future.

This is a techno thriller with liberal sprinklings of science, especially physics and it’s most certainly jargon driven. The storyline has multiple threads which involves nuclear attacks, a serial killer, coding, crypto currency and of that isn’t enough there’s a sci-fi element involving time travel. It’s busy! The central characters are Quinn Mitchell, a smart CIA analyst previously working on the Nuclear Terrorism Non-Proliferation Task Force and now out from behind her desk tasked with tracking down the Elite Assassin, a serial killer with 19 victims so far. There’s Ranveer, an Iranian who travels and stays in luxury and finally Henrietta Yi, a double PhD physicist originally from Korea and working on an ultra secret CIA project. The complex novel brings these three together in an action packed plot.

First of all, the characters are good, they have a lot of potential but because the plot is so crowded they are not as developed as they could be. I want more on all three as their backgrounds are interesting. The first two thirds whilst it’s not always easy to follow you can appreciate where it’s going and once that is resolved the last third becomes rushed and seems to me to be setting the scene for a follow up. I find this section particularly confusing and don’t ask me about the science because I couldn’t tell you! Head, over top of!

Whilst Quinn is undoubtably a sharp cookie, really? An analyst suddenly put to the field on her own to track a serial killer??? Absolutely not. Then there’s a scene where she cries when questioning a potential witness. Again - really?? It just does not ring true and I have a hard time buying that, despite liking her character.

For me, the biggest problem is the jargon and the over-detailing which gets in the way of what is undoubtedly a clever plot. A bit too clever???? It just ends up becoming too much for me and muddled. Or is that me?

Overall, the premise is excellent but the storytelling needs refining so it becomes a cohesive whole.

With thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Michael Joseph for the arc in return for an honest review.

I love a cat and mouse thriller that is fast pacing and I just want to devour the whole book right away. This was brilliant and I can see it being turned into a film, it would be brilliant. I am not really a fan of science fiction but this was sublime. The characters are all unique and complicated with their own motives. There are all different types of gadgets that interested me but for me it was not really about them it was how well the story was written and how it held my attention. A unique and original cat and mouse thriller.

Scorpion is a techno-thriller set in the near future. I really enjoyed how close to home the futuristic elements to this book were - it didn’t feel like ‘sci-fi’ and a lot of the enhancement technologies seemed like great ideas that I hope may be on their way to us soon!

I really enjoyed the first half of this book, there’s a cat and mouse chase between Quinn of the CIA and a deadly Elite Assassin who is killing people with seemingly no connection. This part of the book had the best pacing and I was really invested in the plot. We actually meet and know who the assassin is from quite early on so this added an extra element of trying to work out why they were committing the murders.

I was a little confused by Quinn’s character - although she is a woman with a sad history she felt quite unrealistic. She’s an analyst but she is recruited onto this case in a field agent role despite having no previous experience. She also doesn’t seem to be being handled or managed at all throughout the case which was confusing considering her lack of expertise. It did feel very much like a male author writing a female main character in places - Quinn breaks down in tears in front of a key suspect at one point which was just ridiculous. There’s also mentions of periods and just so that the author is aware if a woman approaches me in a public restroom I do not automatically assume she is after a tampon! She also seemed to go through a complete personality transplant by the end of the book which was very jarring.

After we get to the Grid the story suddenly got very confusing. There’s time travel, particle physics and secret codes and I have admit I got very lost. I’m someone who frequently reads sci-fi and can usually follow along with a science-based plot, but this was confusing for me and I can see from a lot of other reader’s reviews they have felt the same. There’s too much going on and it isn’t explained enough for us to get on board. I loved the character of Henrietta Yu but I had no idea what she was trying to achieve or had found out by the end of the book. I am also confused as to how the plot works without a major paradox happening (usually something that signals the end of the world in other stories), yet this seems to never be mentioned? All the tension that had been built up to the last quarter of the book disappeared as I tried to keep my head above water and understand what was going on.

Overall, Scorpion has a strong start as a thriller story, but the sci-fi elements just confused matters leading to a muddled conclusion. Thank you to NetGalley & Penguin Books – Michael Joseph for the chance the read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

All around the world people are murdered and branded with a number. As it seems, technology is implicated in every murder. How and why are the questions put before CIA analyst Quinn Mitchell.

Fast paced, settled in a near future, full of high-tech and a thriller. Such a treat.

I have immensely enjoyed the book.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Penguin Michael Joseph UK for an advance copy of Scorpion, a thriller featuring CIA analyst Quinn Mitchell.

People are being killed all over the world in apparently motiveless murders, the only thing that links them is seemingly random sets of four numbers etched on their skin. Quinn Mitchell is asked to investigate and soon realises that one man is responsible.

I enjoyed Scorpion, to a point. I didn’t realise that it is a techno-thriller, set, I think, in the near future, but it could be set in the present day and I simply didn’t know the technology exists, and therein lies the problem. I am technically illiterate so I didn’t really understand the detail (and there is plenty of it) of the gadgetry and cyber navigation. I got the gist and that was enough to keep reading and be amazed and frightened by this view of what is to come. I wouldn’t call the novel dystopian, more a measured extrapolation of what is already or about to be developed.

Technology aside I found the plot line gripping with twists and ingenious turns galore. It does hinge to a certain extent on technology but mostly it is a cat and mouse game between hunter and prey. It is told alternately between Quinn and the killer, Ranveer. Later on it moves more into the science fiction realm with concepts that I’m not even going to pretend to understand and have no embarrassment in admitting totally baffled me. They seem illogical to me but I can’t discuss them further without spoilers. I did, however, like the twists that I could understand.

I like the author’s writing style which is engaging, interesting and full of vim and his characterisation which brings the personalities to life.

If you like a hi-tech, hi-concept thriller I think Scorpion is a good example but for technological and scientific illiterates like myself it’s too complicated to be thoroughly enjoyable.