melfellrath 's review for:

Coded Justice by Stacey Abrams

3.5

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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The Avery Keene series is one of my favorite thriller series of all-time. I binged the first two books in this series because of their connection to the Supreme Court and federal legal system. That said, this book didn’t really do it for me. 

I think the writing itself was consistent with the past books and Abrams is always great with her prose. I think it just felt so disconnected from the first two books in its premise. I wasn’t super interested in the get-go from moving away from the federal government focus to a private firm focus. Overall the plot was interesting enough, but I couldn’t help but cringe at “the AI.” It also felt like a few of the deaths were glossed over and not super relevant beyond a mention in the plot. It didn’t give that same urgency as the first two with imminent threats of national security which made the actual pacing feel much slower and not as thrilling. 

It was good but not great. A fun thriller but kind of a let down from past works in the series. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the ARC. All opinions are my own.