In a world where life itself is traded as currency, *Silent Ledgers* plunges readers into a chilling vision of bio-capitalism gone rogue. Nairobi’s neon-lit tech districts hum with cryptocurrency mines and drone-delivered pharmaceuticals, while Dubai’s towering IVF clinics cast long shadows over the desert. Here, fertility rates dictate power, CRISPR-edited embryos insure against climate collapse, and blockchain ledgers immortalize stolen DNA.
Safiya Mwangi, a Kenyan forensic accountant with a razor-sharp mind, uncovers a $2.3 billion diversion from malaria funds during a routine audit. Her investigation leads her to a global network of surrogacy contracts, embryo trafficking, and dark web auctions where human life is collateralized and sold to the highest bidder. But when she discovers her own miscarried son’s genetic footprint in the ledgers, her clinical detachment shatters, and she becomes a relentless avenger in a system that has monetized her grief.
Teaming up with Jarek Varga, a fractured Interpol agent hunting his daughter’s stolen DNA, and Linh Nguyen, a rogue data broker whose own ovarian DNA has been commodified, Safiya infiltrates the shadowy world of bio-trafficking. From Dubai’s opulent surrogacy auctions to Budapest’s deconsecrated synagogue turned auction house, they confront a moral algorithm that forces them to choose between erasing the blockchain—and her son’s digital ghost—or deploying a gene-editing kill switch that could crash markets or trigger pandemics.
Justin Rodgers’ *Silent Ledgers* is a masterful blend of speculative fiction and investigative thriller, a story that feels less like a dystopian nightmare and more like a prophetic warning. With prose that oscillates between forensic precision and searing intimacy, Rodgers crafts a tale that asks: When reproduction becomes speculative finance, does motherhood mutate into portfolio management?
Gripping, thought-provoking, and hauntingly relevant, *Silent Ledgers* is a must-read for fans of *Black Mirror* and *The Handmaid’s Tale*