I saw this was the third book in a series so I wanted to read the other books before diving into this one. Overall I thought this was a solid series with a good mix of mystery, action and family hijinks. I liked that Anna remained a strong female lead through the whole series, she was never overwhelmed by her crazy siblings or the ever present Graham.

The books definately got better as the series progressed and I really enjoyed Cyber Genius. This was my first set of books by Patricia Rice and I would certainly read more from her. ( )

A very intriguing story of an eccentric family of half-siblings, raised by a dysfunctional spy mother. Ana's teenage brother accidentally introduces a computer bug to U.S. government websites, which allows spying software to gain information and maliciously shut down services. The siblings uncover a mortgage scam, murder of executives of the world's foremost computer company, and other nefarious dealings by a political group. There is hardly any romance (although unfortunately sex-based with little emotion). The mystery/thriller is interesting and hard to figure out. ( )

While I haven't read the first book in this series, I did like the second one. And I enjoyed this one even more. Anastasia's younger brother Tudor arrives without warning (her) having traveled overseas to shelter from a potentially disastrous internet worm he unleashed. He wants to make amends and fix it, and the Microsoft analogue is strangely non-responsive. Then there are suspicious deaths in the company's leadership and the race is on to figure out what is really happening.

Graham actually leaves his attic lair for a while and Anastasia is forced into undercover action in a pretty high profile way. There are some pretty wild and creative high jinks and Anastasia and Graham get a bit closer. This book had a more upbeat feel to it and the action was more even, though it was still madcap. And I guess that's what I enjoy about it. The heroine is a complete geek who feels responsible for her siblings, including keeping their mother from intervening in their lives as much as possible. Her siblings are very smart and talented, and manage to undertake some pretty sketchy plans successfully.

Overall it was a fun read. While there is a bit of review of their situation, there was more in the previous book and I think the book would be enjoyed most if at least one of them were read before this one.

I received a free copy for review. ( )

I didn't read the first 2 books in the Family Genius Mysteries series. The third instance, Cyber Genius, was my first encounter with Anastasia Devlin (Ana) and her siblings on their crime fight. Her tech savvy brother Tudor, back from England, has developed a computer virus to hack government web servers. Graham, most of the times invisible, helps Ana's help to clear his name of murder. Graham is very attractive too. Well, then there's MacroWare. Their executives have been poisoned. Was it the fish they ate? Drugs? Politics, a stake in Washington D.C.'s affairs, as well as a family heritage hidden on a Swiss bank account complicate the plot lines.
The characters mostly are described, instead of put into motion. It costed me a lot of time getting beyond the dated and erroneous attempts to depict cyber security crimes in action. It wasn't always clear to whom gunmen belonged, and what the role of police officers were. The short sexual encounter of Ana and Graham isn't developing into a long term relationship. A little flat, Harlequin like characters. No wonder to discover in the acknowledgement section that Rice is praised for her Romance writing. And still, the plot in Cyber Genius kept me reading to the very end to find out "who done it". ( )

I have not read any of the other "Family Genius Mysteries" series by Patricia Rice - but after racing happily through the pages of Cyber Genius (which is volume 3) - I think I am going to be compelled to start with the first book in the series. Sure, the plot of Cyber Genius is convoluted, erratic, and full of gratuitous exposition (Show me what Graham looks like - don't tell me, "His Superman jaw was set in a grim lock—not unusual. His black t-shirt and jeans exhibited none of the dust that covered anyone close to the mayhem, so I knew he’d come running at the explosion.") This pattern of using description, rather than action to reveal information about various characters intrudes on the flow of the plot a few too many times:

“'We are luckier than others,' she added sorrowfully, nodding at the stylish matron with the ruby brooch.
A tall man in a charcoal gray suit sat between me and the woman I’d followed in."

"Graham wore a cute paper hat over his distinctive thick black hair. He had it pulled half way down his forehead to hide the burn scars. His blue smock couldn’t conceal the muscular build he worked hard to maintain.">

I would have rather seen a vivid demonstration of Grahams strength.

I was also stopped by the author's odd word choice. Sometimes, a simple word is more accurate and flows better than a word seemly picked out of a thesaurus - phrases such as, "pretending insouciance" and "the gormless bloke," took me out of the story for a few moments, because they seemed out of place with the bulk of the author's vocabulary.

Fortunately, an original- if slightly dated - plot and the novel's bevy of eccentric characters compensate for any small bumps in the proverbial road. ( I adored the outlandish names of Anastasia Devlin and her siblings. I hope they will be easier to keep straight after reading more of the books in the series!)

If you are the kind of person who cannot enjoy a book unless every technical detail is accurate and plausible - I suspect that you take yourself too seriously to even embark on reading this series. My husband, who works in cyber-security would probably be appalled - but I had a great time reading Cyber Genius. I look forward to reading more books by Patricia Rice in the near future.

(Apparently the next reviewer shared many of my thoughts about this book. Much of his review mentions the exact issues I wrote about in this review.) ( )