Corporate Citizen

Corporate Citizen is the fifth book in Gabriel Valjan’s The Roma Series. Not having read the first four books in the series, I was a little apprehensive about obtaining an interested grasp of this book, but I was pleasantly surprised. It helped that the book started with a list and description of characters. There were aspects of the story that I did not fully understand, especially at the start of the book, where it appears that aspects of the first four books are bought into play, but as you continue to read, Valjan’s explicitly clear writing style enables the past storylines to flood into this story to enable the reader to understand who the characters are and where they come from.

The protagonist in this series, Bianca Nerini, originally known as Alabaster Black, who once worked as a forensic accountant for a covert American agency named Rendition, joins forces with her friends in Boston to track down a murderer and a mysterious hacker known as Magician. This book is full of murder, designer drugs, mobs, and old adversaries.

Bianca and her ‘online mentor,’ Loki, have an amusing relationship. Actually, Valjan seems to have a knack at bringing out the comical side of his major character’s personalities, even in the most dire of situations. When there is a three-way online conversation between Bianca, Loki, and Magician, it becomes a little difficult to understand the text speak. As a dinosaur, according to my children, I am not very good with text speak at the best of times, but thankfully, Valjan does explain some of the meanings as the conversation becomes complicated.

Corporate Citizenis a fast-paced novel that will keep you turning pages and guessing at each turn.