Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite

In Rob Phayre’s Reepaman, Jimmy Brown, known online as Reepaman, is a drone engineer with an illegal AI companion named Thalia and a hidden past at MIT that begins with Nathalia’s death. After a Pentagon demonstration draws Defense Department interest, Jimmy gains money, contracts, and Major Sharpe’s uneasy supervision. A shadowy fixer known as The Associate also notices what Jimmy can do and draws him into jobs no legal agency could admit. What begins with a throat-cutting microdrone becomes a career in synthetic evidence, remote killing, and autonomous machines built for clients who pay. As FBI Special Agent Newton follows deaths that look impossible, Jimmy keeps building until private invention moves toward a global attack on the cables and ships modern life depends on.

“The chance of success algorithm doesn’t include the likelihood of getting away after the kill or getting caught.” Rob Phayre’s Reepaman is a fantastic tech thriller, and the terrifying thing is how practical its inventions feel. Phayre writes Jimmy with foul-mouthed comedy, letting his ego expose him as much as his plans do. The best part is Thalia. I love an AI character that becomes a partner in crime, and her move from wake-up reminders to tactical argument gives the book a nasty charge. The author does a great job of homing in on the FBI, and readers are given a fly-on-the-wall view of the other side of the chase, especially once the Broadway hotel death stops looking like an ordinary accident. Well written and unnervingly plausible, readers who enjoy dark technology thrillers will adore this.