A Question of Trust by Jonathan Pinnock

The first number is 1.

The second number is also 1.

Next number is  2.

Next comes 3.

Then 5…

A Question of Trust is the second book in Jonathan Pinnock’s Mathematical Mystery series.

I read The Truth about Archie and Pye sometime last year and I absolutely loved the story. Mathematics, technology, humour and quirky characters, who wouldn’t like such a story?!! The second book in this series, A Question of Trust did not fail to impress me. 😀 In fact, the second book was mean shit! Totally!

Jonathan Pinnock, how do you write such amazing stuff? If the first book was about Euler’s theorem (pronounced as oiler and not you-ler) and Vavasor twins, the second book is about cryptocurrency, python (the one that hisses), mean hacking skills and cartloads of James Bond-like action sequence.

I absolutely loved this book! It’s super hilarious, quirky, sometimes dirty (reminds me of the lads and their stag party) and much more. It also includes some mathematical stuff (pretty obvious I guess, since the series is called Mathematical Mystery!). Before you go all Haww I don’t like Mathematics, think again. The main character, Tom Winscombe is no genius at mathematics. He didn’t even know what Euler’s formula was (in the first book) but he got along fine, didn’t he?

Tom is a very likeable character. He’s clumsy and sometimes numpty – as Alison calls him. Alison is a mean hacking wizard. The first book ended with Dorothy Chan missing from the scene and the whole office is empty. Yep, not a sheet of paper around. Tom left the office to meet his ex and the next morning, the office was nothing but an empty room.

With Dorothy nowhere to be found, and the bank accounts empty, Ali and Tom share a bedsit. Their temporary housing cannot be called filthy because that would be an understatement. Ali has her doubts – Dorothy ran away with all the cash and equipment. But Dot being Tom’s girlfriend and all, he still has a soft corner for the missing lady.

Tom’s dad gets himself into a cryptocurrency scam. As Tom tries to save his dad’s hard-earned money, he stumbles on a closet full of skeletons. When I said James Bond-like action sequence, I meant it! Guns, chloroform, spies and whatnot, this book was absolute fun!

Then there is Bertrand. He only hisses once in a while – well, mainly coz he’s a snake. And there’s Maryam – she loves flies – again, she’s a lizard so… yeah! The bearded man at the convention reminded me of Hagrid. 😀 Flurf gflurf huff! There is so much to talk about this book. I can go on and on writing about things that I really liked in the story but I won’t because that would mean telling you the whole story!

The Truth about Archie and Pye made it to my Best of 2018 list and this book is making it into my Best of 2019 list. No shit! I know I am using a lot of ‘shit’ here 😛 but blame Alison for that. She uses some words that might be what you call ‘censored.’ If you are planning to read this book (you better!), then start with Book #1. The story is a continuation of sorts. There are tidbits of what happened in book #1 but if you really want to get a hang of the story and the characters, start from The Truth about Archie and Pye. Flurf gflurf!

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Many thanks to Farrago and NetGalley for the ARC.