First Line Friday: Salem's Cipher by Jess Lourey

 This Friday, I am reading Salem's Cipher by Jess Lourey.

GoodReads Description: From the Amazon Charts bestselling author of Bloodline and The Quarry Girls comes a blockbuster thriller that reaches back through centuries of America's secret history.★ "...[A] hair-raising thrill ride." ―Library Journal (starred review) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Salem Wiley is a genius cryptanalyst, courted by the world’s top security agencies ever since making a quantum computing breakthrough. She’s also an agoraphobe who's afraid to leave her own home. When her mother’s disappearance is linked to a plot to assassinate the country’s first viable female presidential candidate, she's forced out of her safe zone.Drawn into a labyrinth of messages encrypted by Emily Dickinson and century-old codes tucked inside the Beale Cipher, Salem begins to uncover the an ancient and ruthless group is hell-bent on ruling the world, and only a select group of women stands in its way.Salem's Cipher is the first in an ongoing series of heart-pounding thrillers that international bestselling author Lee Child calls "highly recommended!"Salem's CipherMercy's Chase★ "A fast-paced, sometimes brutal thriller reminiscent of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code." ―Booklist (starred review) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Each Friday, Reading Is My SuperPower and Rose City Reader host first line link ups. And My Head is Full of Books hosts the Friday56. So as a part of those link-ups I will be sharing the first lines and a line from page 56 from Salem's Cipher.

 

First Line: 

"Grace Odegaard inserted her key into the top dead bolt and rotated it. The lock slid free with a satisfying snick. She repeated the action with the three locks below, humming to herself, a satisfied smile anchoring her face. "

From page 56: 

"“Time to take the leap, honey.”

Salem can tell Vida is losing patience because her mom only refers to her as “honey” when she’s trying not to yell. Anyhow, she could call her Wonder Woman and Salem still isn’t going into that lake.

“No.”

“Please? Mama’ll make sure the fish don’t bite you. We’ll only wade in up to our knees.”

    It isn’t the fish that Salem is worried about, or at least, those are a new addition to her concerns. It’s the water itself, the huge, black expanse of it, sun sluicing across the top to reveal a poisonous pool of mercury. Salem knows better than she knows her own name that if she steps into it, into any body of water where she can’t see the bottom, no one will ever lay eyes on her again.."

What book are you currently reading? Have you read Salem's Cipher? I hear that this is an older book of hers being re-released.  Or have you read others by Jess Lourey.  I've had a few on my TBR, but this was the first I'd read.  

I DID however read her non-fiction book on the healing power of writing fiction - Rewrite Your Life - and wow!  That is a must read.  I blew through that book and am going to go back and do the writing exercises.