GENRE: Thriller

STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT: Second draft

AWARD: 2025 Mystery/Thriller winner for the Colorado Gold Rush Literary Awards

Raised in poverty and fluent first in Spanglish, Nina Montoya is an outlier in her field of data science. Her outsider’s lens, though, helps her spot hidden patterns in the chaos of data that she uses to write an algorithm powerful enough to change the world. Unfortunately, she has a blind spot when it comes to the people in her life, including a newfound friend and secret half sister.

Vivian Callaghan is an ex-foster child, talented hacker, and vigilante serial killer with a formula of her own to find her deadbeat-dad targets. She draws Nina close and guards the secret of their sisterhood while she tries to get information about her long-dead father. When Nina’s work threatens to expose her, Vivian has to decide whether to run or kill the only family she has left.