|
Monthly book reviews of
mysteries and thrillers with a computer theme This is all 150+ reviews published between August 1998 and
August, 2005 |
|
Monthly book reviews of
mysteries and thrillers with a computer theme This is all 150+ reviews published between August 1998 and
August, 2005 |
Current
(2004-2005) reviews | 2003 Reviews | 2002 Reviews
2001 Reviews | 2000 Reviews | 1999
Reviews | 1998 Reviews
reviewed:
July, 2004
Feed, by M.T. Anderson
Paperback,
Candlewick Press, 2002, $7.99, 299 pages
In the not-too-distant
future, computer chips that transmit a steady stream of popular culture and
banner ads are implanted into children’s brains at birth. Titus, on a boring
spring break at a moon resort, falls in love with the eccentric Violet. Their feeds
are hacked. Titus recovers, but Violet, slowly dying, decides to resist the
feed and tries to break through the mindless consumer babble that fills Titus’s
brain.
This exceptional novel
is this generation’s answer to Orwell’s 1984.
reviewed:
May, 2005
Access Denied, by Donna Andrews
Hardback,
Turing Hopper, the sentient artificial intelligence computer, is back in her third adventure, along with human sidekicks Maude and Tim. Turing dispatches Tim to stake out an empty house with a porch stacked with packages charged to the credit card of the elusive arch criminal Nestor Garcia, the thief who stole Turing’s clone. Tim falls asleep on the job and falls under suspicion when a young man is murdered at the site.
The plot involves identity theft
and a credit card scam: the way it’s done is clever and will make you feel
vulnerable. As always, there’s a bit of hacking and philosophizing about
(literally) the meaning of life. Lovely scene with a
computerized security and lawn watering system gone whacko. This is a
marvelous series: read the books in order if you want to get the full effect. Highly recommended.
reviewed:
May, 2003
Click Here for Murder, by Donna Andrews
Hardcover,
Taking off where You've
Got Murder left off, we find Tim, the Universal Library's photocopy guy,
set up in his own fledgling private eye firm; Maude still toiling away as a
secretary at the UL but slipping out every afternoon to run Alan Grace, her new
computer company and Turing, the artificial intelligence program, doling out
advice while preparing for a move to Alan Grace. Tim is so involved with
playing Beyond Paranoia, an online role playing game that his misses a
rendezvous with Ray, Alan Grace's new technical genius. Ray is killed, Tim
feels responsible. His newly won detective skills are put to the test in
finding Ray's killer and fending off a worm attacking all the AIs.
You've Got Murder, now
in paperback, was nominated for the prestigious Dilys
and Agatha mystery book awards. I admit to
shamelessly bugging Donna Andrews to get this next book done. My advice: read
the first one first. As befits a series, many of the details that form Turing
Hopper's quirky character were omitted from the sequel and you will miss much
of the charm of the series if you start with this second book. This book is ALL
about computers: virtual role-plating games that turn into live action role
playing (larp); worms and viruses and, in a stunning
twist at the end, the nature of computers and sentience. The ending is a
winner. Not to be missed.
reviewed:
January, 2003
Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon, by Donna Andrews
Hardback,
Sidelined from her blacksmithing job with a broken arm, Meg Langlow is manning the switchboard at Mutant Wizards, her
brother's software company. Rob coasted through law school creating a role
playing game, Lawyers From Hell, which became a hit on the software
shelves. Something's sour in the company and Rob hopes his big sister with her
nose for solving mysteries will get it back on track. When the office practical
joker is killed, Rob becomes the prime suspect and Meg races to solve the crime
to save her kid brother.
Donna Andrews is a
former programmer and a very funny woman. There's a computer on every page,
from the dysfunctional programming staff, to the renegade game spoof, NUDE Layers
from Hell, to a possible pornography ring running on the company servers,
to disgruntled former employees, spies from rival companies, a
hacker-blackmailer, rabid fans hoping for a peek at the next release….it's geek
paradise. Highly recommended!
reviewed:
June, 2002
You've Got Murder, by Donna Andrews
Hardback, Prime Crime, April, 2002, 304 pages, $21.95
When Zack disappears from his job at Universal Library - eight days
without even checking his e-mail! - worried colleague Turing Hopper enlists the
aid of 50-something secretary Maude and Chris from the photocopy room to track
him down. Turing needs all the help she can get because she's an AIP, an
artificial intelligence personality, unwittingly programmed by Zack to grow
into sentience. The unlikely trio uncovers a plot of murder and financial
finagling that ends in a nail-biting and surprisingly physical showdown in a
remote snowbound cabin.
The quirky and
resourceful Turing is the most engaging mystery heroine to emerge in a decade.
Zack programmed her with the texts of every mystery novel written in the 20th
Century, so she's got the detective gene with a vengeance. The novel wrestles
with the meaning of reality: when computers can feel as well as think and large
corporations can diddle with databases, then what is human? What is true? It's
funny, poignant and a ripping good mystery. Highly recommended.
reviewed:
April, 2002
A Murder of Promise, by Robert
Andrews
Hardback, G. P. Putnam, 2002, 336 pages $24.95
A prominent Washington Post reporter is found hacked to death not far
from her
Without giving away
too much of the plot, computers, especially violent computer games and Internet
security, play a central role in the plot, and are handled deftly. I was
charmed by the loving depiction of
reviewed:
July, 2003
Spiked, by Mark
Arsenault
Hardback, Poisoned Press, July, 2003, $24.95, 318 pages
When a dead reporter
is dredged from a
A reporter for the
Providence (RI) Journal, Arsenault has written an adept first novel. Stan, the
paper's tech services guy, is an endearing misanthrope who trades his computer
expertise for stand-up comedy lessons; parts of the plot revolve around a
mysteriously introduced file-destroying virus and the recovery of deleted
computer files. Clever action, engaging characters, and a twisty plot with a
surprising ending make this a compelling read. Recommended.
reviewed:
August, 2005
Hardware by Linda Barnes
Hardcover, Delacorte, 1995, $19.95, 338 pages
In her sixth adventure, Carlotta
Carlyle, a red-headed six-foot tall ex-cop, part time cab driver and part-time
private detective is asked to investigate a string of cabbie beatings that look
like part of an extortion scheme to corner valuable
Without spilling the beans too much, Sam’s computer buddy is using his hacking skills to embezzle cash from the Mafia. Not too many technical details, but a neat little plot about computer-based embezzling. If you like tough female PIs like Kinsey Millhone or V.I. Warshawski you’ll like Carlotta too. Recommended.
reviewed:
October, 2001
Murder
in
Hardcover,
Parisian detective Aimeé LeDuc is back, this time in
the Belleville Quartier, the old stomping ground of
Edith Piaf and now an appealing melánge
of immigrants and yuppies. An old friend pressures Aimeé
into helping her with a philandering spouse and she appears just in time to see
the husband’s mistress blown up by a car bomb. Aimeé
and her business partner, the handsome dwarf hacker Rene, use all of their
gumshoe and computer skills to link the explosion to a standoff between the
government and sans-papiers, illegal African immigrants
threatened with imminent return to their countries of birth.
Aimeé
and Rene and into French Bank records to uncover the mistress’s true identity
and follow the cyber trail of money in a high level scam that disguises weapons
deals as humanitarian aid. Aimeé uses photo
enhancement software to reconstruct shredded documents culled from the garbage
and Rene gives a plug for Corel Knockout as a tool for doctoring identity
photos. As with Black’s first novel, Murder in the Marais,
the real star of this book is the city of
reviewed:
December, 1999
Murder
in the Marais, by Cara
Black
Hardback,
Corporate security
expert Aimée LeDuc is
approached by an aging Nazi hunter who asks her to decipher an encrypted
photograph. When she delivers the digitally-enhanced print to her contact in the
Marais, the old Jewish quarter of
This is a wonderful
book: I was on the phone recommending it to friends even before I finished
reading it. The evocation of
reviewed: July,
2005
Format C: by Edwin Black
Hardback,
The richest man on earth, Ben Hinnom, preys on
fears of the Y2K problem to embed mind control features into the dominant WindGazer 99 operating system. Chicago investigative
reporter Dan Levin, his girlfriend, her computer genius teenage son follow Hinnom to Jerusalem’s Old City and the Caves of Qumran and
end up in a final battle in Meddigio, on the site
known as Armageddon and faith that the only way to save the world is to
reformat the C drives of every computer at the stroke of midnight.
The first half of this book is a funny, obvious and often well-written
take down of Microsoft and its attempts to dominate the world’s OS market. The
second half of the books turns weird; with Kabalistic mysteries (did you know
that the word computer works out to
666, the mark of the beast, in the Jewish Kabala?), secrets of the Dead Sea
Scrolls, some very odd rabbis and a reincarnation of Hitler and an end of the
world scenario that rivals the Left Behind series. It’s a classic of its type;
read it, but don’t take it seriously.
reviewed:
October, 2004
None
of Your Business, by Valerie Block
Paperback, Ballantine, 2003, $13.95 337 pages
When a partner in a
big
This is, above all, a
funny, funny book: I laughed out loud. Windows are opened into some of the
computer crime squad’s other cases: most of them are related to child porn. I
wonder if that’s typical? The characters are well drawn with a lot of
potential: I hope Block brings them back in a sequel. Sassy writing and a good
plot. Recommended.
reviewed: January, 2005
Faithfully Executed, by Michael Bowen
Hardback,
Former diplomat Richard Michaelson is commissioned by the White house to investigate anomalies in the execution of a hired hit man convicted of murdering a Pentagon computer programmer who was working on a secret project to determine whether electronic voting machines could be tampered with to rig an election.
A hot issue today is whether or not we need a paper trail for electronic voting machines. Just a tiny change to the proprietary code could alter election results and there is no way to conduct an audit – except by running the same computer program! This insightful mystery anticipated the problem a decade before it hit the news. Not many technical details, but nonetheless a thoughtful look at the intersection between technology and politics.
reviewed:
January, 2002
Executive Privilege, by Jay Brandon
Hardcover, Forge Press, October, 2001, 414 pages, $25.95
The first lady sneaks out to hire young attorney David Owens, who's
flying high after winning a high-profile custody battle for the ex-wife of the
CEO of the only Fortune 100 Company in San Antonio. She wants a divorce. The
president doesn't. Their precocious 8-year-old son, Randy, has been
eavesdropping on his dad's high tech shenanigans and he can't afford to let the
kid out of the White House. Owens and a sympathetic Secret Service agent spring
the first family and go on the lam until they have the ammunition that they
need to set them free.
The president has
become a little too cozy with a software mogul who is using his friendship to
pilfer high-tech military secrets and use them for private gain. The computer
details - most of them explained in the book by little Randy - are plausible
and the too-close relationship between the White House and big business is the
scariest part of the book. San Antonio readers will get a kick out of the local
setting. Recommended.
reviewed:
September, 2001
Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown
Hardcover, Pocket Books, May, 2000, 480 pages, $24.95
The secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati has resurfaced, brutally
murdering a physicist in Switzerland and burning him with one of their
long-lost brands. Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon
is called to the scene to retrace the steps of the four hundred-year-old
society through the streets, crypts and churches of Rome before they destroy
the Vatican City and disrupt the conclave of cardinals convened to elect the
next Pope.
Maybe I'm stretching
the Computer Crimes theme a bit here, but the first several chapters do take
place at the Conseil Européen
pour la Recherche Nucléaire,
also known as CERN, birthplace of the Internet. And the central theme, the
tension between science and religion, should be of interest to geeks of all
persuasions. This is a terrifically engaging book - I stayed up until four in
the morning to finish it. The final fifty pages had more plot shifts than a
graveyard in an earthquake. It was released in paperback in June and is
available for download as an e-book. Highly Recommended!
reviewed:
February, 2000
Digital Fortress, by Dan Brown
Hardback, St. Martin's Press, 1998, 373 pages, $24.95
A fired National Security Agency cryptographer, distressed at the NSA's ability to intercept and decode everyone's e-mail,
claims that he has developed an unbreakable cryptographic privacy algorithm. He
threatens to unleash it unless NSA admits that it has developed a secret
supercomputer capable of breaking all other encryption schemes with brute
force. Head cryptographer Susan Fletcher is called in to track down a suspected
duplicate key, while her fiancée, a linguistics professor, is dispatched on a
mission to Seville to recover the original key. Surrounded by intrigue,
betrayed by those they trust most, the country's intelligence databases are
within seconds of being penetrated when they crack the code.
The first edition of
Digital Fortress sold out in nine days and was in its fourth printing within
six weeks. Published two years ago, it has yet to be released in paperback It
has been the #1 nationally best selling E-book for 15 weeks. In other words,
this is a very popular and successful book, and with reason. The technical
aspects are engrossing, with detail about computers-based code breaking and
virus tracking, blocking and recovery. There's fast paced action, but I cracked
the code before the NSA geniuses figured it out. The author's web site,
www.digitalfortress.com, has lots of supplementary material and is worth a
visit. Highly recommended.
reviewed:
April, 2000
Virus, by Bill Buchanan
Paperback, Jove Books, 1997, 432 pages, $6.50
It's 2014 and our military defense is launched into space. Just as the
Air Force is about to test a new technology that will make stealth missiles
obsolete, Saddam Hussein's successors infest the main military computers with
an intelligent virus called PAM that paralyzes
The literary quality
of this book is abysmal. I have been trying to wade through it for a year and
confess that it is the only one of the forty-plus books that I have reviewed
that I skimmed, rather than read. I just couldn't stick it. The amount of
technical detail is immense and apparently well researched. If you like lots
and lots and lots of techno-babble, including charts and snippets of code, you
will like this book. Otherwise, skip it. The detail on viruses is impressive.
reviewed:
August, 2000
Interface, by Stephen Bury
Paperback, Bantam Books, 1995, $6.50, 632 pages
The plot sounds corny,
but this is one of the best books of any genre that I've read in years. The
unforgettable characters are fully developed and totally believable. The
writing is excellent, reminiscent of Tom Wolfe. The technical details are
accurate and unobtrusive. The real strength of this book, however, is in the
political satire. It cuts close to the bone in the battle between the
win-at-any-cost ethos versus integrity. Highly recommended reading in this
election year.
reviewed:
July, 2002
Knockout Mouse, by James Calder
Paperback, Chronicle Books, 2002, $11.95, 272 pages.
A young genetic researcher dies of a shellfish allergy after fish-free
dinner party. Filmmaker Bill Damen, an underemployed
victim of the downturn in the dot.com industry, investigates the death to clear
his girlfriend's name. He uncovers a plot in which crooked scientists stop at
nothing to cover up a failed experiment.
You would think that a
novel with a
reviewed:
December, 1998
Final
Victim, by Stephen J. Cannell
Paperback,
A maverick customs
agent and a bored psychologist spring a hacker from jail to help them
infiltrate an Internet remailer suspected of hosting a
support group for serial killers. At first crack the improbable trio uncovers
The Rat, a psychopathic hacker who travels cross-country collecting body parts
to construct a clone of his hated stepmother. The two super-hackers face off,
and the psychologist sets herself up as the bait - the final victim.
The reviewers hated
this book, claiming that the plot was bogged down by excessive computer detail.
For geeks like us, nothing perks up a novel more than a screen capture or two.
Especially compelling were the descriptions of breaking into building security
systems - the vulnerable point is the elevator's emergency telephone. Cannell is best known for his Emmy-winning TV scripts,
including the Rockford Files, the A-Team, Wiseguy and
the Commish. Explicit sex and violence.
reviewed:
February, 2003
The Eighth Day, by John Case
Hardcover, Ballantine Books, 2002, $25.95, 379
pages
Young Washington D.C.
artist Danny Cray admits that he's more of a Dumbo than
a Rambo, so he's surprised when the biggest client of the detective agency
where he moonlights hires him for a hush-hush side job. The elusive Italian
millionaire asks him to track down people who are slandering him and Danny,
needing fast cash for a new computer, accepts the assignment. From the
It's an omen that two
big nanotechnology thrillers - this one and Michael Crichton's Prey - both came
out at the end of 2002. In a nutshell, nanotechnology uses assemblers - tiny
robots about 1,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair - to
construct matter at the molecular level. This novel has an elegant explanation
of the "gray goo" problem: after two days,
if you can't stop the replication of the assemblers, they'll take over the
world. Lots of computers, even more futuristic technology and a compelling
travelogue of exotic countries and cultures. Recommended.
reviewed:
December, 2002
Cold Logic, by C.J.R. Casewit
Paperback, Metropolis Ink, 2002, $15.95, 279 pages
The handsome owner of a software company blackmails natural language
programmer Terra Breaux into searching for a hacker by threatening to reveal
her secret hacker past. Someone is stealing scraps of Silicon Silk code and
releasing them into the public domain. Distracted by her teenage sister's
pregnancy, she works hard to expose the hacker so she can return to the work
she loves. The stakes are raised when company officers start dying under
mysterious circumstances and Terra feels threatened herself.
This is a good plot
ruined (in my opinion) by excessively explicit sex scenes. Really explicit. On
the technical side, the novel gives an insightful peek into hacker culture, the
pressures of taking a small privately held company public and quite a bit about
computer security.
reviewed:
December, 2004
Cyberkiss, by Sally
Chapman
Hardback,
A programmer from a
biotech startup hires computer fraud investigators Julie and Vic to find out
who is stalking him on an erotic Internet newsgroup. Their client is killed
early on – all that’s left is a handful of ashes in his company’s incinerator –
and when a secretary is murdered, they partner with the police to find the
killer.
The techno-highlights
are a virtual reality wedding, with all the guests plugged into a ceremony on a
computer-generated Saturn and a precious scene where Julie, sprawled on the
floor in her purple chiffon bridesmaid dress, fixes the VR server while a dozen
engineers long on in male chauvinist embarrassment. They also track down
newsgroup postings through an anonymous re-mailer. Nice computer-based mystery
with a good twist at the end.
reviewed:
April, 1999
Hardwired, by Sally Chapman
Paperback,
Worldwide Mystery, 1998, $4.99, 301 pages
Computer security
consultants Julie and Vic are hired by NASA to stop a hacker that is sending
random strings of numbers across the computer screens of a space shuttle. Human
suspects abound but the astronauts hint that the hacker might be an alien life
force.
I waited for months
for this book to come out in paperback and was sorely disappointed. Unlike the
other novels in this series, the computer aspects of the plot were scanty,
belying it's subtitle, "a Silicon Valley Mystery." The repartee
between Julie and Vic crackles, but the rest of the characters are flat and the
plot is thin. Pass this one up.
reviewed:
December, 2004
Love
Bytes, by Sally Chapman
Paperback, Worldwide,1994, $4.99, 253 pages
In their second outing, Julie and Vic have opened their own computer fraud investigation firm and their first client is a bail bondswoman who wants them to track down a missing client, who is also her fiancée, Arnie Lufkin, a Virtual Reality expert who disappeared after embezzling a million from his corporation.
Cute series with an interesting high-tech plot but irritating protagonists. Good virtual reality scenes at a time when it was a fairly new technology and a few details about computer-assisted embezzling. Chapman is a University of Texas graduate who worked for IBM for nine years.
reviewed:
November, 2000
Raw Data, by Sally Chapman
Paperback (out of print), St. Martin's Press, 1991, 250 pages, $3.99
It's not bad enough
that ICI program manager Julie Blake finds the dead body of her top analyst
stashed away in her computer: soon after, she's told that someone is selling data
from her top-secret biological memory chip project to the Russians. Vic Paoli,
an obnoxious techie from the National Security Agency, is flown in to solve the
leaks and the two of them reluctantly team up to save the project and prevent
more murders.
This is the first in
the series of "Julie and Vic" mysteries by Austin native Sally
Chapman, and I think it was the best of the bunch. The technical details are
very good, mostly about the procedures used in finding a security hole. If you
have ever programmed in a language that uses base 16 you will instantly catch
onto an important clue. The story is well plotted and the characters are
engaging. Worth picking up if you can find it in a used bookstore or the
library.
reviewed:
August, 2004
Death Match, by
Hardback, Doubleday,
2004, 24.95, 356 pages
More than a quarter of a million couples have been matched by Eden Corporation’s innovative software. When two of the perfect couples – 100 percent compatible matches – inexplicably seem to commit suicide, the company calls in former FBI psychologist Christopher Lash to investigate. He is both attracted and repelled by the technology and forced to confront some of his own inner demons while being thwarted by someone inside the company.
The technology is a combination of artificial intelligence, incredible computing power and unlimited access to just about every database in the country. Lots of high-tech details. A real page-turner – I guessed the ending about two-thirds of the way through but still couldn’t put it down. Highly recommended.
reviewed:
June, 1999
Net
Force, created by Tom Clancy and
Steve R. Pieczenik
Paperback,
Berkley Fiction, 1999, $7.99, 342 pages
The year is 2010, and
computers are the new superpowers. When his boss is assassinated, Alex Michaels
steps in to fill in as the Director of the FBI's Net Force, a special
department established to police the Internet. He gets caught in the crossfire
between a Mafia don, an Eastern European strongman plotting a coup and a
chameleon-like female assassin. He wins.
Net Force was the
basis for an ABC made-for-TV movie that aired in February. Maybe it should have
been a Saturday morning cartoon -- it read like a comic book, with
too-good-to-be-true heroes fighting totally evil enemies. A group of bright
high schoolers steps in to help the FBI and
eavesdropping on their made-up teenspeak is painful.
From a computer standpoint, there is a shallow but possible portrayal of the
Internet ten years hence as being a virtual reality ride down the information
superhighway, and a neat little device, the VIRGIL, - virtual global interface
link - an all-in-one communications device. Created by Tom Clancy doesn't mean
written by him - he should be ashamed at this bit of fluff.
reviewed:
June, 1999
Ruthless.Com created by Tom Clancy and Martin Harry Greenberg
Paperback,
Berkley Fiction, 1998, $7.99, 353 pages
Businessman Roger
Gordian believes it would compromise national security to put his encryption
program on the market and finds his company the object of a corporate takeover
by Asian political extremists, who want to put the leadership of the free world
out of business. He wins, they die.
The .Com in the title
of the book led me to believe that it would have a strong computer theme. It
doesn't. Although the company targeted for takeover produces encryption
software, computers play a very minor role. One exception is the step-by-step
portrayal of a raid of a "key vault" in Sacramento. This appalling
book was written as a companion to a computer game by the same name. For almost
eight bucks a book you would think Clancy could have afforded a proofreader -
the Philippines was spelled three different ways in the first hundred pages.
reviewed:
April, 2004
The
Fractal Murders, by Mark
Cohen
Hardcover, Mysterious Press, 2004, 310 pages $25
A college professor hires private
detective Pepper Keane to find out if there is a connection in the murders of
three fellow mathematicians, all experts in fractal geometry.
A fractal is a complex shape in
which each part of an image is a smaller version of the whole. Fractal geometry
is being used for everything from art work to economic forecasting. If you’ve
been curious about fractals, this is an entertaining introduction. Computers
are present throughout the book, from hacking and file recovery to a brief
interlude with neural networks. A nice effort for a first novel, which seems to
have been self-published a few years ago and is being released as a hardback
next month.
reviewed:
June, 2000
Butterfly Lost, by David Cole
Paperback, Harper Mystery, 1999, 373 pages, $5.99
Laura
Winslow is a part-Hopi Ritalin junkie who moved back to Arizona to work as an
"information midwife" for a bounty hunter. She lives in a trailer near
the reservation where she was raised and hacks into computer systems to track
down fugitives. She's good at it - she's a fugitive herself. When her business
partner goes off on a tangent trying to track down a horse mutilator, she
reluctantly accepts a case of her own tracking down a young girl whose
grandfather thinks she has been abducted by Navaho skinwalkers.
Dragged away from her safe computers into the real world, she's forced to
confront her troubled past to catch a killer before he strikes again.
Tony Hillerman
fans will feel right at home with Butterfly Lost. Laura is a compelling heroine
and her computers are a running theme throughout the book, although the Native
American plot overshadows the technical details. David Cole is the founder of
the Internet's award-winning NativeWeb. This is his
first novel. I hope there are more.
reviewed:
April, 2001
The Killing Maze,
by
David Cole
Paperback, Avon, 2001, $6.50, 325 pages
Since we
first met Laura in Butterfly Lost
she's changed her name, settled in Tucson and gone to work for an aging - and
missing - private eye. Laura reluctantly leaves the anonymity of her computer
keyboard for a face-to-face meeting with a pharmacist who suspects prescription
drug insurance fraud at her small chain of drug stores The deeper Laura digs,
the more complex the crimes. Gangs. Smuggling Native American babies across the
Mexican border for illegal adoptions. Ruthless right-wing politics. Teamed up
with Rey, an ex border agent and his ex-wife Meg, a
performance artist, Laura risks her carefully constructed false identity and
life itself to untangle a labyrinth of deception and death.
Even better than Butterfly Lost, which I loved. Laura
shows her usual facility in cracking into corporate databases and uncovers an Internet
scam of stunning evil and astounding complexity. A tight plot, excellent
secondary characters and a theme as fresh as today's newspaper. Don't miss this
one. Will especially appeal to Tony Hillerman fans
and those who enjoy a richly constructed Southwestern plot.
reviewed:
January, 2003
Stalking Moon, by David Cole
Paperback,
Laura
Winslow, the Hopi cyber sleuth, is hiding out in the
This is a dark, violent and
ultimately confusing book. Read Butterfly Lost and The Killing Maze before
tackling Stalking Moon, or you'll never keep the characters and their
motivations straight. Although there are computers throughout the book -
including a clever ruse involving switched Palms Vs to get access to a chat
room - there is less technology in this than in Cole's two previous Winslow
books. The plot line about the illegal trafficking in women is sadly true.
reviewed:
July, 2003
Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code, by Eion Colfer
Hardcover, Hyperion Books for Children, May, 2003, $16.95, 320 pages
Dapper
thirteen-year-old genius Artemis Fowl, heir to an Irish crime dynasty, steals
computer technology from the fairy underworld and creates the C Cube, a
do-everything computer that is 50 years ahead of current human know-how. Intent
on increasing his family's already bulging coffers, Artemis attempts to
blackmail Spiro, a mob-connected Chicago telecom magnate: for a billion
dollars, he'll keep the cube off the market. His plan backfires when Spiro
kills Butler the bodyguard and makes off with the cube. Aided by his old rival,
Captain Holly Short of the LEPrechaun fairy police
and Mulch Diggums, a tunnel dwarf, Artemis spins an
elaborate plan to rescue the cube.
