Dark Digital Sky by Carac Allison

Private investigator Chalk has led a life full of twists and turns.  He could have been a college professor but chose instead to focus on crime and becomes an FBI agent.  That job ends along with his marriage when his wife and he part brutally and he ruins his career along with any future relationship with his ex-wife and son.  So he turns to being a private eye as he can find anything.

Chalk gets a new case when a famous Hollywood producer hires him to find the children he may have sired through artificial insemination and that he has decided he wants to meet now that he is ill.  Chalk finds three sons fairly easily.  But finding these men is just the start of the case.  Before the case is done, Chalk uncovers a vast conspiracy of a new breed of terrorist that plans to create chaos through drone attacks, not overseas, but in the United States.

Carac Allison is a new author and his writing grabs the reader by the throat.  Along with the mystery, the reader is introduced to a plethora of subjects:  Japanese ceremonial swords, cyber-hacking, drone technology, paramilitary mercenaries, dog-fighting, street gangs, and the world of wrestling.  The computer lines are particularly well done, although they leave the reader uneasy at how easily networks can be broken.  The evil genius that becomes Chalk's nemesis, General Ripper, is an interesting character.  The pace is breakneck and the action never stops.  Readers will be reminded of Andrew Vachss and his private eye Burke, and of America's master novel, Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian.  This book is recommended for mystery readers who like hardboiled crime and the noir genre.