(reviewed the day of purchase)

Infected Connection is a fast paced sci-fi thriller/horror that brings to life the worse nightmare of many (if not all) technology and gadget fans...your phone is not safe. The story begins innocently enough with a new smartphone being recalled due to technical issues but it quickly becomes apparant to technician Simon Parfitt that things are not quite as straight forward as they seem. In fact the problem with the phones combines the stress of technology breaking down (face it, we all stress out when our phones don't work...) with his worse fear and greatest phobia...spiders! And so begins Simon's quest to get the message out to Government and the public in the face of an enemy that can control the very information sources we rely on for our daily dose of news, gossip and procrastination.This story may be a little quiet to start with Simon being a softly spoken technician, uncertain of himself, what he has found and what to do about it but don't let this fool you, it will pull you in and drag you along staring at your phone with suspicion the entire way (which makes reading on it difficult I can tell you!) and by the end you will find yourself cheering for Simon and his phobia...and Invisible Max (loved I.M!!!). Yes the characters do fit nicely into the sterotypes of socially awkward technician, sexy secretary and homeless man with a shady scary a*se past but why the fix something if it isn't broke (and lets face it, everyone loves the familiarity of a sterotype)? There is something in each of the characters that the reader can relate to and as such this makes them and the story more real and thus more believable (again you will not trust your phone...at least for a while).Straker has also broken up the out and out action with plenty for the geeks (and inner geeks...admit it, you have one) running through the more technical aspects allowing the characters (and the reader) to catch up with the whys and wherefors adding an extra depth and dimension to the story that could so easily have been just another sci-fi thriller. And then of course there is Simon's phobia, which as a spider lover I just found hysterical (cruel of me, I know), and which added a level of humour, along with Max's superb one-liners (did I mention that I loved Max?!), that the dark side of your funny bone will love. Just read it people!!!