LACY MERRICK

Full Name:	Lacy Merrick
Nationality:	American
Organization:	FBI
Occupation	Other - Analyst

Creator:	Robin Mahle
Time Span:	2016 - 2018

ABOUT THE SERIES

Lacy Merrick is a data analyst for the FBI.

By the words of her husband, Jay, at the beginning of the first recorded adventure, we learn that her job has her "tasked with analyzing online chatter, data breaches, social media posts, and red-flagged language". That, to me, sounds like an impressive role to play and I would say Jay had a good deal of pride in him over her work, though he did tend to ruin it a tad by adding, "and yet for helping to protect our country, she's paid only slightly more than our programmers". Jay is a cyber-security expert whose firm sells high-end methods for keeping intruders from breaking through corporation firewalls to do the same work of work for nefarious purposes that Merrick does on behalf of the nation.

Merrick is not an agent with the Bureau; she is a civilian who had worked for some time for the same company where her husband still works. She was making good money with that company but felt the need for a challenge. "Her interest in the field and an exceptional skillset led her to make the move from her former position with a high-tech cyber security firm to the FBI." In her current position, she provides key intelligence to field operatives; her keen insights gleaned from studying a mountain of seemingly unconnected pieces of data is impressive and highly valued.

That value is not surprising considering how good she is and how hard she drives herself. "A masters in computer science, three years at Argus Solutions, and four years as a Data Analyst. Lacy was one of the best in her field".

One thing she never thought she would be, and had not desired to be one, is a field agent and while she never officially becomes one, digging as deeply into things as she does, sometimes those whose secrets are being revealed do not appreciate her efforts and she has to learn how to survive away from the keyboard.

Merrick does have a life not glued to a computer monitor or three; she is the proud mother of two children, 6-year-old Olivia and 4-year-old Jack. The safety of these two will play on her mind as she becomes more physically involved in chasing down the bad guys.

BOOKS

Number of Books:	4
First Appearance:	2016
Last Appearance:	2018


1			State of Denial aka Primal Deception Written by Robin Mahle Copyright: 2016 "FBI civilian data analyst, Lacy Merrick, manages the threat of terrorism every day. But when terror strikes home, she is faced with a new reality and a new enemy. When she crosses paths with Special Agent Will Caison after the tragic incident, Lacy begins to unravel a furtive plot to discredit not only her, but her husband and cyber security expert, Jay Merrick. The plot, she soon discovers, balances on the tip of a deeply embedded secret that has the potential to destroy a nation."

2			Shadow Rising Written by Robin Mahle Copyright: 2017 "The ground work has been laid. Justice for Lacy’s husband and the other victims of the attack six months ago would soon arrive. Expert hacker and close friend, Aaron Hunter, is working with her side by side to help ensure that happens. But when FBI Agent Will Caison returns to Washington, vowing to help Lacy once again, a disruption to their plan changes everything they had been working toward. Operatives involved in the cover-up begin to disappear, one by one, and Lacy must face a new and unexpected reality. Another player in this deadly game of deception has risen."

3			First Target Written by Robin Mahle Copyright: 2017 "Lacy Merrick pulled at the thread of corruption and America has begun to pay the price. With the country in an economic freefall, a result of harsh US sanctions, civil unrest has exploded. To combat the possibility of further corporate and government deceit, an elite task force is put in place. Now, Lacy Merrick and her colleagues must find the money behind the Dalian Company—the Chinese-run global corporation at the heart of Lacy’s unexpected reality."

4			Ghost Nation Written by Robin Mahle Copyright: 2018 "Lacy Merrick and her team have a new mission; find the man behind a black-market operation who helped fund the thwarted attack in Beijing. However, what the clandestine task force discovers is a more troubling problem. The organization and the man behind it is funding terror by selling stolen US intellectual property to rogue regimes. When they get too close, the operation funded by government interests in Eastern Europe, implements its so-called Ghost Nation protocol and goes dark. The trail cools until Lacy encounters a potential ally, a cyber hacker known only as Graybear, whose motives remain unclear."

MY COMMENTS

Non-computer geeks need not worry with this series; Lacy Merrick is a whiz at data-mining and analyzing but while some tech talk is there to let programmers like me know she knows what she is doing, there is not much techno-babble which is a good thing. It isn't needed, really, as the stories are not how she mines but what she finds and how it will affect not only the country as a whole but also her and her family in particular. The author, Robin Mahle, does a terrific job not bogging things down in minutae and throwing in just enough geek-speak to make everything believable.

Ms. Mahle has several other series going which are not spy-related but are still darn good (Kate Reid in particular) so a few years have passed since the last Lacy Merrick adventure. I do not know if she intends on returning to the Merrick space but if she does not, she at least gave us four terrific adventures to enjoy.

GRADE

My Grade: A-

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