A few months ago I attended an author event featuring Neal Stephenson and Cory Doctorow, ostensibly to promote Doctorow’s new book The Bezzle. However, they spoke little about The Bezzle, instead launching into a fascinating discussion of the internet, Big Tech, and the enshitification (degradation and decay) of major online platforms. This caused me to pick up a copy of Doctorow’s 2023 book The Internet Con, which exposes the strategy of Big Tech (and other major industries) to circumvent current laws and establish monopolies. The Bezzle, although a novel, because of its verisimilitude is equally paranoia-inducing.

The Bezzle is the second in a series about the recurring character Martin Hench, a forensic accountant who, for large fees, goes after decrepit rich people stealing large amounts of money from their investors, their partners, or the public. The book opens on Catalina Island, playground of the wealthy, where Hench (whose nickname is Marty) has gone with his millionaire friend Scott for some R&R. “There’s no crime on Catalina” becomes an ironic catchphrase, because they uncover a scheme by some of the ultra-rich denizens to deprive the Catalina locals of their hard-earned wages and plunge them deeply into debt. Compared to other things these amoral fiends are involved in it’s not even that lucrative; it is more played like some sort of sadistic game. About a third of the way into the book we learn what bezzle means. It comes from the word “embezzlement,” of course, and refers to “the weeks, months, or years that elapse between the commission of a crime and its discovery. This is the period, incidentally, when the embezzler has his gain and the man who is embezzled feels no loss.”

Marty and Scott manage to thwart the scheme on Catalina, outraging some powerful people in the process, but later they stumble upon a far larger crime that victimizes multitudes more people: nothing less than the embezzlement of the California prison system. Scott is sent to prison on a drug charge, which causes he and Marty to discover what is happening. I shouldn’t really tell you too much about how they react and deal with the situation because that would be a major spoiler; you should have the pleasure of discovering these things for yourself. This novel is fun, exciting, and eye-opening. I like its unusual premise, and I especially enjoy the economic, political, and technological details that Doctorow shares, all of which, as I said, have the air of verisimilitude. It makes you wonder if there is any honesty at all to be found in the higher echelons of wealth, government, and high tech. It certainly emphasizes that there are predators out there in high places who desire nothing more than to suck everyone else’s money into their own coffers.

All that aside, it’s a rousing tale with an unusual hero, and it makes me look forward to reading more stories with further adventures of the intrepid Martin Hench. The Bezzle is volume two in the series, by the way, but it is self-contained; you don’t have to have read the first book, Red Team Blues, to appreciate it. However, if you enjoy The Bezzle as much as I did, you’ll probably be seeking it out.