I've finally finished it. In my view this is an improvement over Avi’s first book 24 (which was itself great) and is a more exciting and racy read. It kind of reads like a cross between a detective story (first half) and a James Bond thriller (second half), with a bit of Douglas Adams (improbable coincidences seem to happen a lot) and Salman Rushdie (plenty of magical realism) thrown in. It follows Oliver Battolo in his ongoing quest (it's basically his hero's story) to find what happened to his father, who we found in the first book was missing, presumed dead, following a boating accident (ho ho, Bitcoin joke there). Oliver continues to investigate the mystery around the strange paintings we first encountered in 24 and gets himself into all kinds of scrapes, learning about himself and growing up along the way. He's not the only one looking to solve the mystery though, and has to find out the secret in the paintings before others do, including his arch enemy Nick, the frustrated and vindictive shitcoiner (I wonder which person in real life he is based on).
There are, of course, lots of references to Bitcoin throughout, which is to be expected, although I don't think the reader really needs to be that knowledgeable about it beyond knowing about seed phrases being a key feature (side note: interestingly this was not a Satoshi invention, even though it's one of the more magical things about Bitcoin). I haven't got round to trying to figure out if there are any clues in the book, as there were in the first one, but I am reliably informed that there are things to be found if you look closely. I would be really interested to hear if anyone finds any.
Overall, highly recommended. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
