Salem’s Cipher by Jess Lourey is the first book in the NEW “Witch Hunter” thriller series. Publisher: Midnight Ink, September 2016

A troubled codebreaker faces an epic plot reaching back through centuries of America’s secret history

Salem Wiley is a genius cryptanalyst, courted by the world’s top security agencies ever since making a breakthrough discovery in her field of quantum computing. She’s also an agoraphobe, shackled to a narrow routine by her fear of public places. When her mother’s disappearance is linked to a plot to assassinate the country’s first viable female presidential candidate, Salem finds herself both target and detective in a modern-day witch hunt. Drawn into a labyrinth of messages encrypted by Emily Dickinson and centuries-old codes tucked inside the Beale Cipher, Salem begins to uncover the truth: an ancient and ruthless group is hell-bent on ruling the world, and only a select group of women stands in its way.

I’ve read the author’s “Murder by Month” mystery series and enjoyed it tremendously, but this new series, knocks it out of the ballpark by delivering a fast-paced and action-packed thriller that doesn’t let up from the first page to its conclusion. The drama contained in the narrative of this riveting drama grabbed my attention immediately and kept me glued to the pages as I had to know how this will end and boy was I transfixed by all that was happening. The dangerous exploits surround our heroine everywhere she went and it was her dogged pursuit and determination that propel this intensifying, hold-your-breath story forward and I applaud the author on a job well done.