The Software Bomb

Wes Lukowsky

Jack Lynch used to be a wage-earning public-relations hack for the First Interstate Bank of Louisiana. Now he's a free-lance public-relations hack whose client is the same bank. A villainous computer hacker has threatened to wipe out the bank's files if $5 million isn't deposited in an offshore account. Hired by the bank's lame-duck president, Carton Smith, Jack suspects an inside job. The department is thick with petty jealousies, ambition, and personal vendettas. What makes this novel work is Womack's ability to create an appealing everyman protagonist. Jack Lynch is a regular fella, filled with anxiety, loneliness, and more than a little fear of the future. But he muddles on. Hey, he's got a job to do. New Orleans isn't quite as much of a presence here as in the work of James Lee Burke or Julie Smith, but Womack still uses the city to good advantage, as he did Nashville in his earlier "Dead Folks' Blues". Let's hope we hear more from Jack Lynch.