Luke, a member of the Secret Service, finds that, after an earthquake in Bellingham, Washington, he must "Follow The Crypto" ($18.99 in paperback from FriesenPress; also for Amazon Kindle). As the story unfolds, readers will learn not only about how Bitcoin works but why it's the favored monetary system for various nefarious doings and for avoiding taxes. That's because it's untraceable. Sort of.
The earthquake doesn't cause much damage, except, as a news alert says, to "one side of a three-story downtown building." It falls nine feet into one of the old mining tunnels under Bellingham; nobody hurt, but investigators find strange things in condo 2A, where someone named George Kennedy lives. We're talking "digital wallets," code numbers, and cash. About $30,000.
George has made it known to local bank tellers to expect big deposits because he's a professional gambler. In actuality, of course, George is not; he's not even "George." But before he flees the area he wants to visit the bank one last time to retrieve "almost five pounds of gold bullion coins--about $150,000 worth of American Eagles and Canadian Maple Leafs."
Luke, serving as one of the Secret Service representatives on the government's Joint Task Force on cryptocurrency crimes, is soon involved in what is becoming a bigger case than one about a local con artist's bad luck. Staying with an old friend and his wife near Lake Whatcom, Luke unravels a drug smuggling scheme that stretches from Bellingham down the I-5 corridor all the way to Mexico.
Along the way we meet not only the corrupt officials running the operation but a greedy wannabe. And, after a killing, the question becomes whether the good guys' plot to catch the murderer will work.
But there is more. Once motives have been revealed things get increasingly complicated and Luke wrestles with the "inherent tension between law enforcement and criminal justice." King is at his best in asking where justice may be found and, fortunately for readers, his answer is not encrypted.
