Mara Voss grew up patching secondhand laptops in a trailer park, teaching herself code by flashlight after her mother's night shifts ended. Fifteen years later, she's a penetration tester nobody remembers hiring and everybody underestimates — until the night she finds a backdoor buried inside Solari Systems, the cybersecurity giant that quietly guards the nation's financial infrastructure. The backdoor isn't a bug. It's a weapon. And someone at the top of Solari built it on purpose.
When Mara reports the breach, she isn't rewarded. She's framed, fired, and hunted. Her only ally is Adrian Cole, Solari's icy chief security architect — the man whose code she just proved is compromised, and the one man whose trust she'll need to survive. As Mara claws her way from disgraced contractor to the center of a billion-dollar reckoning, she and Adrian are pulled into a partnership neither can afford, and a desire neither of them can outrun.
Somebody built the exploit. Somebody is using it. And the only way out is through.
David G. Stone is a scholar of Afro-Caribbean spiritual traditions and death studies with over twenty years of research experience. His work in Haiti and among diaspora communities has granted him rare insights into Vodou practice and the sacred mysteries of the Gede spirits. Stone holds a Masters in Religious Studies and is committed to presenting marginalized traditions with authenticity, respect, and cultural sensitivity. He teaches courses on world religions and mysticism, and serves as a consultant on African diaspora spiritual practices. Death's Gentleman represents his life's work exploring one of Vodou's most enigmatic and powerful loa.