Author J.A. Jance promotes latest thriller novel involving artificial intelligence
A New York Times best-selling novelist will be making a stop at the Buena Vista Branch Library in Burbank on Sunday to talk about how artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency can be misused if placed in the wrong hands.
With her latest book, “Duel to the Death,” J.A. Jance continues her fictional thriller series featuring the character Ali Reynolds, a former Los Angeles news anchor who started a cybersecurity office. It was released on Tuesday and published by Touchstone Books.
Jance will be at the Buena Vista Branch Library at 2 p.m. to discuss the novel, as well as sign copies of it. The book will be sold at the event by Flintridge Bookstore.
It is the 13th installment in the Ali Reynolds series written by Jance, who this time decided to relegate Reynolds to be a supporting character to develop another character in the series, Ali’s second-in-command Stuart Ramey.
“Duel to the Death” starts off where the previous book, “Man Overboard,” left off. Ramey thought an artificial-intelligence program with great power named Frigg was shut down for good, but the system manages to keep itself barely active and tries to convince Ramey to reactivate it.
“Frigg’s way of guaranteeing that Stuart Ramey would have to bring her back was moving some of her creator’s funds into Stuart’s name, and those funds were in cryptocurrency,” Jance said. “So if he doesn’t pay the taxes on that cryptocurrency, he’s going to be in trouble. And the only way to gain access to the cryptocurrency is to get the password from Frigg.”
Cryptocurrency is a type of digital currency that does not require the use of banks to transfer funds from one user to another.
Jance said she wanted to incorporate the volatile currency into her story as a way to let her readers know about the issues surrounding cryptocurrency, and to include a current-day topic into the story.
“It seemed like it would be fun to mention it,” she said. “Also, cryptocurrencies have traditionally been used by bad guys to hide funds, and there are a lot of bad guys in this book.”
The novelist has also tried to incorporate a new technological advancement in her past stories. She included the use of DNA evidence in some of the books she wrote in the 1980s well before law enforcement agencies were using that tool to solve crimes.
She uses the topics of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies as a way to give readers insight into what could happen if computers start having minds of their own or if the world decided to widely adopt a digital currency.
Though she mentions futuristic devices and services, Jance said her books are always about how her characters deal with these changes.
“That’s why I write books — to find out what happens to these people,” she said.
anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com
Twitter: @acocarpio
