Zero Ri$k by Simon Hayes | Book Tour Review
This book was gifted to me by Literally PR in exchange for an honest review and place on the book tour. This article contains an affiliate link.
Hello Readers,
It’s my turn on the book tour for Simon Hayes’ Zero Ri$k. The tour started on the 25th of June and runs until the 17th of July. I’ve added all the tour details at the end of this article if you’re interested in knowing what the other participants thought of the book.
As usual, before I go into my thoughts on Zero Ri$k, let me give you the synopsis, so you know what the book is about:
23 December 2024… Rob Tanner should have been enjoying a rare day off from his life-consuming work as Chief Operating Officer at one of the country’s largest banks. But a panicked phone call from a senior colleague forces him to put his Christmas plans on ice: more than a thousand of the bank’s accounts have seen their balances increased by a factor of ten. Exactly ten. Through the inexplicably simple addition of an extra zero. And when the inflated balances prove to be neither early Christmas gifts, nor a botched computer system upgrade, but the most sophisticated cyber attack in history, Tanner finds himself in the eye of a ‘Black Swan’ storm no one predicted, but anyone could have anticipated.
Tanner enlists the help of brilliant American cyber security expert Ashley Markham, but the attacks only worsen: bank balances rise remorselessly and spread to all the nation’s banks. The only clue to the hacker’s intentions are cryptic daily emails, centred on Hieronymus Bosch’s medieval representation of the seven deadly sins - and packed with colourful artistic and cultural references - taunting Tanner and the newly incumbent Prime Minister, James Allen.
With financial markets - and the very world as he knows it - on the brink of collapse, Tanner races against the clock to decode not just the bizarre emails but their deeper meaning, and the implications for who he can really trust. All the while, his former boss “The Toad” is seeking revenge… and answers of his own.
This enthralling, multi-layered debut follows the story of a disillusioned banker facing unthinkable financial Armageddon, where money has no value, stock and bond prices are meaningless, and the eceonomy is destroyed. Can Tanner unravel the mystery of the hacker’s obsession with Bosch, sin and retribution before modern society returns to the dark ages?
It’s hard to believe that this incredible book is Simon Hayes’ first novel. His writing style is so unique and vivid, and his characters so life like and full of depth, that you would think he’d been writing books all his life! I was gripped from the first page of the teaser book I was sent back in December of last year when I read the first 80 or so pages of this novel. The wait for the full novel to be sent to me built so much anticipation because by the end of those first 80 pages, I was hooked. Once I was able to read the full book, it was truly difficult to put down {I had to make myself at times} as each turn of the page drew me in more and more. I needed to be with these characters and find out what would happen next. I haven’t read a book that’s made me feel that way for a little while and it was brilliant!
The characters Hayes has created are wonderful, some you will love and root for, others you’ll love to hate. I absolutely adored Rob Tanner as a main character and the way he handled the impossible situations he was placed in felt very realistic, and made me wonder how I’d deal with them - probably not with Tanner’s grace that’s for sure. Ashley Markham was another character that I thought was incredibly well written. At times she felt like a breath of fresh air on the page; so quick and intelligent and a great compliment to Tanner. I thoroughly enjoyed their dynamic and the relationship that grew between them just felt very organic.
“It’s a Black Swan event... Hugely consequential events that people never consider possible, but in fact, are easily explainable. But only in retrospect...”
The other friendships and relationships within the book were written well and, despite the fact that these characters were all mainly colleagues, you could tell that the majority of them had all worked together for many years and they’d gone from co-workers to trusted friends. Some of my favourite scenes and conversations were between Tanner and Tommy Steele; their friendship was wonderful and as you got deeper into the story, I felt their friendship became even stronger and I was so glad that Tanner had Tommy in the moments when everything started to fall apart for him; because there were a few moments when everything fell hard for Tanner.
Another relationship within the book I want to briefly mention is that of Tanner and his dad, Harry. Their relationship starts off very strained and you only fully discover the reason why later on in the book. After that point and a hard conversation between father and son, their relationship begins to change and it was so heartwarming to see them come back together. Harry playing a bigger role within the plot towards the end of the book with the hacker and the emails being sent was a great element to add in. This is probably a slight spoiler but I loved that Harry was far smarter than all the security and intelligence agencies at the PM’s disposal trying to figure things out.
The hacking of the U.K’s banking system and the conversation surrounding the state of the nation, morality of the people in relation to the “seven deadly sins” was quite captivating. I had to keep reminding myself to read this book as a piece of fiction, because living in the U.K myself, there was an underlying feeling of “this could maybe, possibly, happen” and that thought, if allowed to festered, could be very anxiety inducing. That is how well written this book is and just something to be aware of if you pick it up.
The emails being sent by the hacker held so much information and pop culture references that they were fun to try to decipher and figure out along with the characters. They were a great element in adding to the ticking clock of the situation the powers that be were facing and in moving the story along. They also contributed to the twists and turns of the story, of which there are a few, including, what felt like to me, a devastating reveal at the mid-way point of the book. From that point on, as Simon Hayes’ said himself to me when I messaged him about the reveal, “this is where the fun begins!” and boy did it! The change from “we need to figure out who’s doing this” to “we need to find them” was exquisite and so well done.
I am one of those readers that often gets very attached to the characters within the books I read, especially when the book pulls me into its world as much as this one did. So Zero Ri$k had me on an emotional rollercoaster almost from the start; it destroyed my heart a number of times but by the end, had pieced it back together, kind of. This book is 562 pages and yet it left me wanting even more; because I’m also one of those readers that just has to know what happens to the characters after the book ends. I just need to know that Tanner, Tommy and everyone else, especially Tanner’s dad Harry, is doing okay.
Overall, I enjoyed every moment I spent in this word and with these characters, even if it caused some emotional damage at times. I’d highly recommend it to anyone wanting a book that is fast paced, with plot twists and puzzles to solve against a ticking clock. Simon Hayes and Zero Ri$k are definitely on my top reads of the year list!
Thank you so much to Literally PR for giving me the opportunity to read this incredible, thought provoking book and for a place on the tour. Thank you Simon for sharing this story with the world, I can’t wait to see what you write next.
Stay Safe. Read a Book.
L x
Zero Ri$k Book Tour Details
If you’d like to find out more about this book and Simon Hayes, you can do so via his social media handle ~ @mysimonhayes
If you’d like to find out what everyone else on the tour thought of this book, below are all the dates and social media handles for all the book reviewers:
25th June: Tyler ~ @titleswtyler / Jill ~ @JillGal91513266
26th June: Kayleigh ~ @bookwormescapes / Kelly ~ @tbhonest_uk
27th June: Sarah ~ @mrse2017
28th June: Lia ~ @lia.anshar / Mary ~ @thelittlereadingcorner_
29th June: Kim ~ @stratospherekawaiigirl
30th June: Nicole ~ @nic_readsbooks / Miriam ~ @miriamlsmith3
1st July: Laura ~ @travelling_pageturner / Mandi ~ @bigfamilylittleadventures
2nd July: Alice ~ @storiesbyAlice2021 / Jan ~ blue wolf-reviews.com
3rd July: Lauren ~ @Lauren.bookstagram3 / Rachael ~ @Rachael_Jess
4th July: Katherine ~ @ReadbyKatherine / Jacqueline ~ @jackiesreading
5th July: Tami ~ @bookaddict.twylie68 / Jade ~ @mummyandmex2
6th July: Mia ~ @book.aholicsclub / Rhiannon ~ @rhiannondaverc
7th July: Shabana ~ @skbookwormfever / Charlotte ~ @brit_bookworm
8th July: April ~ @thelarlbookworm / Veronika ~ @bookchatter2021
9th July: Vanessa ~ @nessakt / Kay ~ @kayloureads
10th July: Charlotte ~ @bluefairybugsbooks / Mia ~ @paradise_library
11th July: Chloe ~ @the_secret_bookreview / Helen ~ @HelenByles
12th July: Lauren ~ @LdLoz
13th July: Emma ~ @fitzgerald631 / Sophie ~ @lovepets_lovebooks
14th July: Kirsty ~ @bookwormwhitlock86 / Laura ~ @bookishhermit
15th July: Louise ~ @louiseslittleife / Kaz ~ @kazlovesbooks
16th July: Kitty ~ @Tstrawberrypost / Gail ~ @Gales.tales47
17th July: Esther ~ @bookcozy / Ruby ~ @xrubyreadsx
