The Master Code - Softcover

Hunter, T. A.

Softcover

ISBN 13: 9798411080247

Publisher: Independently published, 2022

Synopsis

A near-future murder-mystery-drama morphs over 10 days into an action-packed sci-fi conspiracy-thriller as a historical Southern rural river community is suddenly overwhelmed by a series of accidents and deaths. Are all these events somehow tied to a dam break, the murder of an old riverman, and a fish? Can Sheriff Coleman of Charles County solve this puzzling case with the reluctant help of Jason Dickson, an autistic convicted-hacker/ engineering student? What discovery is so great they risk their lives, and everyone they love, to reveal to the world? Can you decipher the Master Code with Jason too?

Nominated for the 2023 Prometheus Award for Best Novel

Reader comments:

• The author tackles big, complex topics that are hugely consequential in scale and scope. Exgenics Corporation sounds all too real. He crisply set the scene and the footnotes are like a future-history narrative tying the story to the referenced locales and technologies. Solving the detective mystery carries the reader along to the climax. I admire his dialog and pacing,” Published Author and Online Commentator
• "An intricately woven web immersing the reader within a community in a future place and time," Retired Engineer
• "I cried for Rufus and Grandpa," Real Estate Agent
• "I laughed at Jason's exploits! Filled with surprises and exciting twists until the end!" Manufacturing Technician
• "I don't know how the author did it, but there is romance in this novel too!" Accountant
• "After finishing this book, I wanted more," Attorney
• "A realistic near-future and warning for our present." Scientist

About this title

About the Author

T. A. Hunter grew up from a simple life as a farm boy who played in the woods, creek, fields, and farm pond to become an engineer, scientist, inventor, businessman, artist, poet, naturalist, and avid gardener.  He is married and a proud father.  Two of his childhood heroes were Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Edison.

From the Inside Flap

In the Near Future...
Exgenics is a privately held company founded several years ago by genetics scientist Dr. Ernesto Gerardo to commercialize a technology that would change the world, and if harnessed carefully could prove a miracle breakthrough in cancer and other genetic diseases. A company led by this ambitious man would readily find investors and easily capitalize his company to focus on both his immediate research needs and long-term goals.

Jason Dickson is a brilliant twenty-two-year-old engineering student with autism spectrum disorder who was convicted of malicious computer hacking in Federal Juvenile Court at the age of twelve. While a young boy, he was orphaned in a tragic accident and raised in the Tidewater of Virginia by his grandfather, a widowed Baptist minister. Jason, his high school sweetheart Julie, and other local residents of rural Charles County are about to be faced with a set of coincidences and discoveries that force Jason to decide whether to break his court-ordered lifetime ban on computer hacking to uncover the mystery and crack The Master Code. If he's caught breaking his suspended sentence terms, he'll face a lifetime in Federal Ultramax Prison, but the mystery is dark, deep, and earth-shaking, so he must make his decision carefully and wisely...

"One Fish, Two Fish, Yellow Fish, Glow Fish!" with apologies to Dr. Seuss

Edition details

• Publisher: Independently published
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 13: 9798411080247
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 382