Treacherous Hack
Kevin G. Chapman
338 pages
Published Jan 2nd, 2026
First Legacy Publishing
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Treacherous Hack is the seventh book in the Mike Stoneman series about a middle-aged homicide detective in New York City and his younger partner. While these are definitely crime fiction stories, they vary from book to book in terms of focus – while the previous ones have been murder mysteries, this one is more of a gangster story where the murder is merely the introduction. You don’t need to read these in order, this works perfectly well as a standalone, although the evolving character relationships are part of the fun of the series.
On a freezing winter night, a pawnbroker is found dead outside his shop, and the police soon discover two further bodies inside – Chinese nationals known to be part of an organised crime group. The killer was clearly searching for something – but did they find it, and how do the killings connect to a data breach at a prestigious university? Jason’s news reporter wife Rachel is thrilled to be given the murder as her first assignment, but soon discovers that using insider info from him will get her into trouble at home.
I first read an early draft of this as one of the author’s beta-reading time. Being a cyber-ignoramus, I struggled with all the talk of computer games, hacking and cybercrime. I enjoyed the final version a lot more, particularly seeing some of my suggestions being implemented. The drama here is in the character interactions and the suspense in whether and how they can locate the missing file before the nefarious gangsters. I still got frustrated with some of them – Rachel in particular behaves appallingly, I felt quite sorry for Jason, but it made for an interesting dilemma. There are some unlikely coincidences in terms of connections between the characters with links to the case, but this probably won’t bother most readers. A well plotted & paced thriller for both existing fans of the series and newcomers. Thanks to Kevin for the ARC. Treacherous Hack is available now.
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