I've mentioned before that mystery/crime and its various subgenres tend to be make for some of my favorite reading. And I always enjoy reading references to bitcoin in my fiction[1]. Not surprisingly bitcoin (and "crypto") comes up more and more as a standard MacGuffin, the plot device that people must chase (often in the form of a flash drive). On rare occasions, the author even seems to know a little bit about it.
(Aside: It's pretty much a given that in any crime novel featuring bitcoin, bitcoin exists as something than can be exchanged for a lot of fiat; detective novels taking a look at the state of the financial system and concluding that it needs to be destroyed probably don't stay in the genre, which is by nature lowercase-c conservative and aimed at restoring a status quo.)
Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club series is a fun and hugely successful series of cozy mysteries, in which four members of a retirement community in the UK (one of whom also happens to be an ex-spy) solve cold (or sometimes not-so-cold) murder cases. Chris Columbus directed a terrible movie that wasted a great cast and changed 80% of the plot, but the books remain entertaining.
The most recent book in the series, The Impossible Fortune, does in fact have a bitcoin MacGuffin, but Osman at least seems to have some understanding of btc and its history. The plot (and I'm not giving anything away that's not in the first thirty pages) revolves around a pair of partners managing a cold storage unit. Years ago (around 2012), a client asked if they'd accept some bitcoin in lieu of their normal fee. They were both willing to take a risk, and accepted it. They put the only copy of the key in one of their storage lockers, with each having exactly half of the code to open the safe. Years later, that btc is worth a LOT of fiat, and they decide they finally want to sell it.
Two days later, one of them has gone into hiding after an attempt on his life, and the other is dead.
There are plenty of plot twists as the characters go down assorted rabbit holes to find the code, find the actual location of the cold storage vault, and find the killer, and I won't spoil anything on those fronts. But I do appreciate that there's a realistic send of how bitcoin might have been viewed fifteen years ago vs today, and an understanding of how various people in financial businessed might react to its changing value over the years.
I don't think I'd recommend jumping in cold with this book -- these are characters whose relationships with each other have evolved (and the cast of POV characters has grown a lot over the course of the books), but if you're staring the series, this is a fun one to look forward to.
It was, in fact, the topic of my very first post at SN. ↩
Good to see bitcoin cropping up in more fiction.
Eventually though, the treasure narrative will get played out and the mysteries will go deeper.
If anyone wants stories that examine more than how to get the most fiat from bitcoin, visit 21futures.com
Your first post was a while ago. What's the best novel where btc appears in a non-trivial way?
Sadly, I don't think I've anything really great where btc is also a major factor! The closest (which is not a novel) was True Names: And the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier, which collects the titular Vernor Vinge story and a number of related essays and stories, but predates btc (even if it's a formative influence in many ways).
I frankly thought that The Mandibles was pretty terrible as a novel, and very few other books seem to have taken on the economic system in any meaningful way (which, to be fair, is not an easy lift).
Loved True Names; and Vinge generally. A very important one, that.
Thanks for this. I don't read too much of this fiction, but I am curious. Do you really think it would be terrible to pick it up as a stand alone?
It's always a bit tough to tell (since I can't un-know things when I read them), but at the very least, this book is chock full of spoilers for the previous ones. What I don't know is how accessible the characters are for someone who hasn't read them, but it feels like there's an assumption that people have knowledge about them.
FWIW, the series reads very quickly, so it might be worth grabbing the first book to see if you like the writing style.
Fair enough. I'll give it a try.
I liked how you tied in this book review with your penchant for Bitcoin fiction in your inaugural post — gives it another flavour
Thanks! It's always fun to do a callback.
What stands out here is that Osman treats bitcoin as more than a shiny prop. In most crime fiction it is the equivalent of a briefcase full of cash dressed in tech jargon. MacGuffins are fine when you need velocity in a plot but it is rare to see an author align the device with actual historical context. Bitcoin in 2012 was an obscure curiosity carrying equal measures of risk and ideological promise and for those willing to hold onto it the story arc writes itself in the clash between past perception and present value. The fact that Osman grounds his plot in the mechanics of cold storage and the way partial key access works tells you he is paying attention and it adds a layer of authenticity that benefits the reader. Cozy mysteries are about restoring order but when you weave in an asset born from an anti establishment ethos you introduce a subtle tension between tradition and disruption. That kind of friction often makes for sharper storytelling and richer character development.