A hard-charging, hard-fighting novel about a forensic accountant coming out of retirement for one last job, by acclaimed author and activist Cory Doctorow

Money-laundering, cyber-knavery and shell-company chicanery: Marty Hench is an expert in them all. He's Silicon Valley's most accomplished forensic accountant and well versed in the devious ways of Fortune 500s, divorcing oligarchs, and international drug cartels alike (and there’s more crossover than you might imagine). ** In cyber-security, RED TEAM plays attack. BLUE TEAM plays defence. Marty Hench’s career in tech is almost as old as Silicon Valley. He’s the most accomplished forensic accountant in town, an expert on the international money-laundering and shell-company chicanery used by Fortune 500s, divorcing oligarchs, and international drug cartels alike (there’s more crossover than you might imagine). Marty was born to play attack. If there’s a way to get under the walls and bring the castle down, he’s the one to do it. There’s no better financial Red Teamer in the Valley. Now he’s on the trail of a stolen key, one that unlocks an illicit backdoor to billions in crypto. More than reputation and fortune is on the line – Marty’s adversaries are implacable criminal sadists who will spill oceans of blood to get what they want. Finding the stolen key is going to be the least of Marty’s problems: now he has to save his skin. To do that, he’ll have to play defence. And Marty hates playing the Blue Team.

"'Doctorow keeps perfect pace . . . and he succeeds in maintaining maximum tension... Hench [is] a classic itinerant hero with a 21st-century skill-set'" - Financial Times

"A pacey tech thriller with a cynical but smart worldview" - Perspective Magazine

"The novel packs a lot of punch and delivers well above its paperweight . . . a good cyber-human thriller set in an all too possible real future" - SF Crowsnest

"'Well, talk about timely. In the wake of the late-2022 collapse of cryptocurrency comes this novel about a forensic accountant who’s hired to work a case involving electronic theft of cryptocurrency... Doctorow's novels are always feasts for the imagination and the intellect, and this one is no exception: it’s jam-packed with cutting-edge ideas about cybersecurity and crypto, and its near-future world is lovingly detailed and completely believable.'" - BookList

"'Docotrow’s fiction always makes me think about the world in a different way… [Red Team Blues is] a great techno-thriller that will make you realize just how deep the world’s money pit is'" - Geekdad