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2005 Past
Reviews:
Reviewed in August,
2005
Dangerous D@ta,
by lury.gibson (Adam Lury and Sam Gibson)
Paperback, Bantam, 2002, £9.99. 272 pages
An anonymous client hires Arthur C. Dogg, a data detective, to check out the garden flat at 81 Bryanston Road, London NW6. He reports that there are three roommates, Cynthia, Robert and James. Learn more, the client says. And Dogg learns a lot, revealed to us through the records that he has hacked into, from university transcripts and Amazon book buying records to credit card transactions, archived e-mails and national health files. When one of the flat mates is killed, an intriguing little mystery unfolds.
The subtitle of this book is "Your privacy has expired . . ." and if you weren't worried about the electronic trail that leaves you vulnerable to snoops like Dogg, you will be after reading this novel. It even includes tips of Web site to visit to spy on people! The format of stark records interspersed with Dogg's commentary is very effective, reminiscent of epistolary novels of old. This is a British book that I ordered from a little shop in Wales through the American Booksellers Exchange but you can check it out from the Alamo PC Learning Center library. What a deal! Highly recommended.
 Reviewed in August,
2005
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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 Boston cab medallions. The title is a double entendre: faced with unprecedented danger behind the wheel of her cab, she upgrades her "hardware" from a lead pipe under the seat to a gun and buys her first computer "hardware" from a shadowy friend of her sometime lover Sam, son of a Mafia don.
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 in July,
2005
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Something to Kill For,
by Susan Holtzer
Paperback, St. Martin's Press, 1995, $5.99 242 pages
While foraging for Art Deco treasure on the Saturday morning yard sale circuit, Ann Arbor computer consultant Anneke Haagen stumbles across a bludgeoned woman just in time to hear her dying words: "The Jap?" Concerned that suspicion will wrongfully fall on the city's only Japanese-American dealer, the antiques association asks Anneke to use her contacts as a consultant to the police department to help them unmask the real killer and the "big score" that lead to murder.
This is the first in an award-winning series that will delight those interested in antiques and yard sale lore. The computer stuff is on the periphery but solidly written and insightful about the day-to-day work of a computer consultant. Recommended.
Reviewed in July,
2005
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Format C:
by Edwin Black
Hardback, Brookline Books, 1999, $24.95, 402 pages
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 in June,
2005
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The Consultant,
by John McNeil
Hardback, Coward, McCann & Geohegan, 1978, out of print, 297 pages
Chris Webb will tell you: he's the best computer consultant in London, 1978. What he doesn't tell his corporate clients is that he uses his access to their mainframes to detect sophisticated computer crimes and, rather than report them, creates trap doors so he can adopt these almost undetectable crimes as his own. He hits the jackpot when he gets a coveted contract to audit the computer procedures at Waterman's Bank and finds that the potentially high payoffs involve correspondingly high risk.
As far as I can determine this is the first mystery novel featuring a realistic computer crime. I expected a quaint period piece but it's brilliant: as fresh as the day it was written, despite the IBM 370s, punch cards and remote access by teletype. The plot involves what Chris dubs a "weevil" and what we would now call a Trojan horse: a hidden program that that attaches itself to the operating system, does its dirty work then overwrites itself with meaningless data. Highly recommended and worth tracking down at a library or used bookstore, especially for anyone who remembers those earlier days of corporate computing.
Reviewed in May,
2005
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Dirty Deeds,
by Mark Terry
Trade paperback, High Country Publishers, 2004, $12.95, 192 pages
Meg Malloy, after making millions from the sale of her software company, takes a trouble-shooting job to help a friend recover a mega-church's donation records that disappeared in a crash of their secure Web server.
Nice debut novel for what promises to become a series. Great technical details about data recovery, video enhancement (did I forget to tell you about the porn video starring the pastor's daughter?) and a clever Trojan horse program.
Reviewed in May,
2005
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Access Denied,
by Donna Andrews
Hardback, Berkley Prime Crime, 2004, $23.95 251 pages
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 in May,
2005
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Chasing the Dime,
by Michael Connelly
Paperback, Warner Vision, 2002, $7.99, 436 pages
Henry Pierce, founder of nanotechnology company Amedeo, moves to a new apartment and gets phone calls for Lilly, an "escort." Her - now Henry's - phone number is still listed on a porn website but no one has seen her for weeks. Although he should be busy preparing for a meeting with a major investor he gets drawn into finding the missing Lilly.
Excellent descriptions of nanotechnology and its potential uses, plus peripheral stuff about hacking, patents, high-tech financing and the Internet porn industry. The term "chasing the dime" refers to the competitive rush to invent a molecular computer no bigger than a dime. This is a very good thriller with a wonderful kicker at the end. Recommended.
Reviewed in April,
2005
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Apple Crunch,
by Frederic Vincent Huber
Paperback, Avon, 1981, out of print, 264 pages
A computer consultant and a young hacker, their lives ruined by sloppy glitches in New York City's municipal computer system, team up to get revenge on a corrupt system by stealing the city's budget data and holding it for ransom.
This is a lighthearted caper - if you like John Sandford's Kidd novels, this will be right up your alley. The charm of this book is in its relative antiquity: 1981! Remote terminals are described with awe and the city is struggling with defining what constitutes a computer crime. The Big Apple Computer Club - a charming collection of Nerds not unlike Alamo PC - figures prominently in the plot. Out of print, but a copy is in the Learning Center library.
Reviewed in April,
2005
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Interrupt,
by Toni Dwiggins
Paperback, Tor, 1993, out of print, 319 pages
Computer engineer Andy Faulkner is stunned when 40,000 phones in the Silicon Valley - phones on his switch! - suddenly go dead and the glitch is tracked back to his deaf 11-year-old son's TDD device. Suspended from his job and unfairly framed for the outage and the murder of a coworker, he takes matters into his own hands when his son is kidnapped.
Lots of details about telephony, written during an era when PacBell was switching over from a manual to a digital system. Interesting plot twists computer code, compilers and the Stanford University telephony lab that will interest the geek set. Out of print, but a copy is in the Learning Center library.
Reviewed in March,
2005
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Random Access Murders,
by Linda Grant
Paperback, Avon, 1988, $2.95, 186 pages
Corporate security expert Catherine Saylor, in her first case, defends her boyfriend, private detective Peter Harman, who is charged with murdering the mistress of a high-powered computer company CEO.
Good series, with a high-tech twist to every book. In this one, an interesting discussion about gray market computer components: parts in short supply that are brokered by shady intermediaries. Also an introduction to Saylor's partner Jesse, who joins the Silicon Valley hacker community and uses his new-found skills to get information not available through legitimate channels. Recommended - Grant is a thoughtful writer who combines intricate plots, high tech shenanigans and social comment in a readable package.
Reviewed in March,
2005
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Country Comes to Town,
by Toni L.P. Kelner
Hardback, Kensington, 1996, $18.95, 308 pages
While her college professor husband spends a month in England leading a Shakespeare seminar, Laura's North Carolina cousin Thaddeous comes to Boston to keep her company. An old boyfriend is found dead in the alley behind her apartment. He was being forced out of the software company he helped found, just as it was ready to go public. Laura takes a programming job at the company - run by her old MIT friends - and tries to solve the murder.
Even though the heroine of this series is a programmer based in Boston, most of the series take place in her cozy North Carolina hometown and do not make use of her computer skills. This book is the exception. Technical details about programming code, intellectual property and viruses.
Reviewed in February,
2005
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Off-line,
by Lawrence Goldstone
Hardback, St. Martin's, 1998, $22.95, 279 pages
It's the near future - 2020 - and computers have taken over most of society's brain work, from school teaching to interior decorating, leaving people bored and restless. AutoDrive, ColorMatch, DecoTech, LandscapeMaster take care of all life's little details. When a beautiful employee of a software company is murdered in what appears to be a routine sex crime, city detective Paul Gagliardi senses a mystery not detected by the databases and machines that control 21st Century police work. He decides - with the help of his ex-cop father - to bypass technology and investigate this case the old-fashioned way.
A fascinating science fiction mystery, even closer to current reality than it was when written six years ago. Technology is on every page and takes a starring role in the surprise ending. Recommended.
Reviewed in February,
2005
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Concrete Hero,
by Rob Kantner
Paperback, Harper Mystery, 1994, $4.99, 394 pages
Detroit PI Ben Perkins, roped into auctioning off a free investigation in a public TV benefit, is "bought" by an Ann Arbor widow looking for assurance that her husband did indeed die by accident. Ben soon discovers that the victim was active in a computer bulletin board that traded x-rated photos and that several other BBS subscribers died under suspicious circumstances. Add a fading blues singer, a shady senatorial campaign and an old acquaintance with computer skills who is coming off a bender and you've got a recipe for an exciting mystery.
BBSs were still a novelty when this was written and Kantner does a nice job of explaining the technology. Also a sequence about recovering deleted files. Interesting characters that you can care about. This is a series and it makes more sense if you read them in sequence, but it stands up okay on its own.
Reviewed in January,
2005
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Faithfully Executed,
by Michael Bowen
Hardback, St. Martin's, 1992, $17.95, 230 pages
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 in January,
2005
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The Forgotten,
by Faye Kellerman
Hardback, W.C. Morrow, 2001, $24.95, 363 pages
Los Angeles Police detective Peter Decker takes it personally when a troubled young man desecrates the Jewish shul his family attends. Decker suspects the kid has accomplices in a white supremist group but he can't prove it, and the boy seems to be contrite. Six months later the teen is brutally murdered at a nature camp run by a pair of psychologists, and Decker catches the case.
The technological hook is that the psychologists have hired a hacker to break into the computers that house standardized tests, such as the SAT and IOWA tests; they use their advance-knowledge to coach rich students to score well. The scanty tech talk is woefully inaccurate: in one paragraph, the detectives say that you can read "the pixels" in a web site's cookie database just by visiting the site. Pixels, of course, are picture elements and have nothing to do with cookies. A casual user could not look at a site's cookie files - you would have to hack into the log files on the server. Nonetheless, this is an excellent series with complex characters and gripping plots. Read it, but not for the computers.
2004 Past
Reviews:
Reviewed in December,
2004
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The Mezonic Agenda: Hacking the Presidency,
by Herbert H. Thompson and Spyros Nomikos
Paperback, Syngress, 2004, $34.95, 368 pages + CD-ROM
As college professor and software security consultant Chad Davis is preparing to testify in favor of Internet voting software before a congressional committee he is approached by a hacker who slips him a CD and sets up a clandestine meeting for later that night. The hacker is murdered. The disk is encrypted. Davis uses his reverse-engineering skills to crack the disk and is shocked at what he finds: the software he was ready to endorse has deliberate flaws that will enable the developer to rig the upcoming presidential election.
Here's the kicker: The same disk the professor has is bound into the book. If you have some hacking skills (I don't) you get a chance to hack the election. It's being run as a contest. The deadline is January 20, 2005, so you better get cracking. If you don't want to buy the book, the software can be downloaded at www.meazonicagenda.com.
The second half of the book explains the technology behind the novel. There are five appendices: a brief history of voting machines; reverse engineering; cryptography; Buffer overflows and steganography. In easy to understand language, you can quickly get up to speed on the current controversy about the security of electronic voting machines and the challenges faced in developing a system to allow people to vote over the Internet.
The fictional part of the book is not particularly well written - the characters are flat and clichéd and the plot is melodramatic - but it helps set the stage for the textbook half of the book and puts the science into context. Recommended, even though the $35 retail price is outrageous. I donated my copy to the Alamo PC library, so if you're quick you can check it out there.
Reviewed in December,
2004
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Cyberkiss,
by Sally Chapman
Hardback, St. Martin's, 1996, 259 pages
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 the 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 look on in male chauvinist humiliation. They also track down newsgroup postings through an anonymous re-mailer. Nice computer-based mystery with a good twist at the end.
Reviewed in December,
2004
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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 bawdy, cat-loving bail bondswoman who wants them to track down a missing client, a Virtual Reality guru who disappeared after embezzling a million from his corporation.
Cute series with an interesting high-tech plot, some clever writing but irritating protagonists. I really, really dislike Julie and Vic. Good virtual reality scenes at a time when it was a fairly new technology -- the crimes were rehearsed using VR -- and a few details about computer-assisted embezzling. Chapman is a University of Texas graduate who worked for IBM for nine years.
Reviewed in November,
2004
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Women's Place,
by Linda Grant
Paperback, Fawcett, 1994, $5.99, 248 pages
Private investigator Catherine Saylor and her partner, Jesse, are hired to go undercover in a software company where the women are being harassed. While Jesse handles the technical aspects, such as stolen passwords, Catherine insinuates herself into the company. The harassment escalates, a woman is murdered, and Catherine becomes the next target.
This is a compelling case study of sexual harassment in an industry where women were - and still are - in the minority. Interesting look at the software industry, just as corporations were starting to drift away from their mainframes and over to networked PCs. Good writing, tense plot, interesting characters. This is an excellent series. Recommended.
Reviewed in November,
2004
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Disclosure,
by Michael Crichton
Paperback, Random House, 1993, $7.99, 496 pages
A happily married executive at a Seattle computer company is seduced by his new boss; when he declines, she claims he started it. He counters with a sexual harassment suit. The company, on the verge of a delicate merger, has a hidden agenda in trying to resolve the case quickly (I won't give it away!)
Crichton says in an afterword that it is based on a true story, and the role reversal, although disturbing in places, helps you think more deeply about sex and power in the workplace. Lots of high-tech details, especially virtual reality-enabled databases and the process of bringing a new product to market. The miniaturization foreshadowed in the plot - tiny cell phones and DVD players - has come to pass. Made into a 1994 movie staring Michael Douglas and Demi Moore. Recommended.
Reviewed in October,
2004
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None of Your Business,
by Valerie Block
Paperback, Ballantine, 2003, $13.95 337 pages
When a partner in a big New York accounting firm takes off with $103 million of his client's money, the computer crimes squad is called in to find the man and the money. Mitch Grieff doesn't seem to have the skill to pull off either the rip-off or the disappearance, but who would help him? His only friends are tropical fish. It couldn't be Erica, the frumpy tax loophole guru - or could it?
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 in October,
2004
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The Body of David Hayes,
by Ridley Pearson
Hardback, Hyperion, 2004, $23.95, 344 pages
When embezzler David Hayes is released from prison he immediately contacts Liz Boldt, wife of Seattle Detective Lou Boldt. Liz is head of the bank's IT office and once had a secret affair with Hayes, nicknamed "Chip" because he had control of everything in the bank with a computer chip in it. The $17 million Hayes stole is still floating around somewhere, the Russian Mafia is after him, and Liz is his best bet for gaining access to the bank's mainframes.
Pearson is a popular police procedural writer; this is the ninth in the Lou Boldt series. The computer details are relatively sparse: an episode in an Internet Café; crooks monitoring a meeting by scheduling it under the eye of an Internet-enabled highway camera; and, of course, the embezzlement from the bank's mainframe. Well written, interesting characters. You'll get more out of it if you read the series in order.
Reviewed in September,
2004
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Codex,
by Lev Grossman
Hardback, Harcourt, 2004, $24.00, 348 pages
Young banker Edward Wozny is offended when a big client requests him by name for a special project, just two weeks before he's set to depart for a new job in London. Catalogue books? Sounds menial. He's drawn into the search for a medieval book, one scholars claim has never existed. Life turns weird when a computer game he is playing seems to mimic his search for the codex. With the help of a teenaged medieval scholar he picks up at the library, he sets out to solve a mystery that has perplexed the world for 700 years.
If you liked the Da Vinci Code and The Rule of Four (neither of which had even a whiff of computers, alas) you will enjoy Codex. There is a LAN party scene that will appeal to gamers - tell me it's not really that strange! A fast-paced book with an interesting puzzle at the core. Recommended.
Reviewed in September,
2004
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The Bug,
by Ellen Ullman
Hardback, Doubleday, 2003, $23.95, 355 pages
It's 1984 and Ethan, an admitted mediocre programmer working on one of the first graphical, mouse-based interfaces for a database, has a persistent bug in his program. It's intermittent, and the testers keep failing to get a core dump. Finding the bug starts consuming his time and eroding his confidence; his home life falls apart, his neighbors threaten to kill him.
If you do any C programming, read this book NOW. There are vast swatches of code reprints and you can test your skills to see if you beat the bug before the fictional programmers do. The narrator is a quality assurance tester, and her perspective is also enlightening. At heart, this is a philosophical novel about the boundaries between man and machine. Highly recommended.
Reviewed in August,
2004
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Death Match,
by Lincoln Childs
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 in August,
2004
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Live Bait,
by P.J. Tracy
Hardback, Putnam, 2004, 23.95, 320 pages
Four elderly Minneapolis-St. Paul residents, three of them holocaust survivors, are brutally murdered. The detectives, with the help of the Monkeewrench software gang, dig into the past to find the killer.
Monkeewrench, the computer company that starred in Tracy’s first book, has developed a program, FLEE, that helps police departments sort and analyze large amounts of data collected in homicide cases. They’re getting ready to take their portable computer crime lab on the road, which (I hope) means more books featuring this engaging crew. Some neat bits about facial scanning and recognition software – they’ve developed a program that can match faces right off the Internet. Believable characters, a great plot with a surprise ending (which I won’t spoil for you) and nice use of technology. Highly recommended.
Reviewed in July,
2004
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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. Anderson has created a dystopia, a plausible extension of the current media/consumer culture gone haywire. Culture is reactive, sped up; marketers, wired directly into the brain, feed a silent stream of ads to pliable consumers. Schools, run by corporations, teach only consumer skills: after all, Titus reflects, “who needs to know what dumb battles George Washington won in the Civil War?” Written for young adults – high school age – the clever language is a bit strong, but quirky and fun once you get the hang of it. Not only for kids; highly recommended.
Reviewed in July,
2004
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The Secret Code,
by Paul D. Meier and Robert L. Wise
Paperback, Thomas Nelson, 1999, $, 301 pages
As college sophomores Judy and Ben become engrossed in the Bible code and after eight years of study determine that the Torah predicts that a nuclear Armageddon will destroy Jerusalem in 2006. Their warnings unheeded, they gather together a small band of Messianic Jews and flee for the safety of Petra, in Jordan, pursued by Israeli soldiers and a coalition of evil nations.
The Bible Code was a best seller in 1998. Its premise was that secret messages are hidden in the Torah, deciphered by counting every fifth or thousandth Hebrew consonant. These messages could only be deciphered once computers were programmed to analyze the Equidistant Letter Sequences (ELS) that contain the predictions. It’s total nonsense, of course, although the authors, who also write a millennial series of Christian books, seem to take it seriously. Sloppy writing and sloppy theology. Skip this one.
Reviewed in June,
2004
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Pattern Recognition,
by William Gibson
Paperback,
Berkley, 2003, 356 pages, $14.00 Cayce Pollard, a market researcher
with uncanny intuition and a physical allergy to name brands, is hired by
a tycoon to uncover the source of "the footage," video snippets that
appear on the Internet a disjointed clip at a time, attracting a cult
following. Her search takes her to London, Tokyo and Moscow, following a
trail of marketing, globalization and terror.
William Gibson is an iconic writer: he invented the word "cyberspace."
This is his first novel set in the present day, although there is
something futuristic in his depiction of everyday objects, events and
relationships. Lots of technology - mostly Internet centered - but also a
thoughtful, deep analysis of the human condition. Beautifully written,
with an engaging plot and delightful characters. Highly recommended.
Reviewed in June,
2004
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The Footprints of God,
by Greg Iles
Paperback, Pocket
Star Books, 2003, 528 pages, $7.00 Medical ethicist David Tennant works for
Project Trinity, a secret government organization attempting to build a
quantum-level supercomputer. Using advanced magnetic resonance imaging
techniques, six top scientists have supplied Trinity, the experimental
computer, with molecular copies of themselves as models for a neurological
operating system. When the scientists start suffering neurological
malfunctions from the high-level MRI they underwent to map their brains,
he is forced to flee.
There is a bizarre subplot of Tennent having mystical visions in which
he inhabits the body of Jesus, which Iles just manages to bring off. There
is lots of technology, bordering on sci-fi, most interesting in its
exploration of the ethical and religious implications of technology. This
is a good techno-thriller, trying to be more profound than it really is.
Reviewed in May,
2004
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The Hanged Man's Song,
by John Sandford
Hardback,
Putnam, 2003, $25.95, 321 pages Kidd and LuEllen are back on their fourth
outing. The renegade hacker pair is alarmed when Bobby, the center of
their occasionally criminal network, drops out of sight. They don't know
his real name and have no idea where he lives so it takes a while to
discover that he's been murdered. While they mourn the loss of this man
they never met they realize that they must recover his stolen laptop - who
knows what secrets lie within? With the help of a precocious ten-year-old
girl hacker, they cross the country, elude a renegade CIA agent and look
for the missing computer.
Sanford is much better known for his "Prey" series, but I find these
better written and immensely more entertaining. These are odd novels -
lots of action, lots of laughs, amusing characters and violence galore. As
with all of the books in this series, there is plenty of technology. Best
to read them in order: Fool's Run, The Empress File, The Devil's Code,
then this one. Recommended.
Reviewed in May,
2004
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Firewall, by Henning Mankell
Paperback, Vintage
Crime, 2003, $13.00, 405 pages.  Swedish police detective Kurt Wallander is
disturbed by the case of two teenaged girls who kill a cabbie as easily as
they would squash a bug, but the plot thickens when the murder is linked
to the unexplained death of a computer consultant who keels over while
making a cash withdrawal at an ATM. Computers are the key to the crimes,
and the police, aided by a young hacker, race to break through the
firewall of a malicious gang before more people die and something horrible
(I won't give it away) happens.
One of my favorite mysteries is the noir Martin Beck series by
Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, also set in Sweden, which ended with Wahlöö's
death in 1975. These are similar in nature: methodical police procedurals,
intricately and carefully plotted, with believable characters and a dollop
of social commentary. This is the seventh in the series and the only one
to feature computers, but it makes up for the lack of technology in its
predecessors. Lots of hacking and a sad commentary of the vulnerability of
our technology-driven society. Highly recommended.
Reviewed in April,
2004
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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 in April,
2004
You can buy
this book from Amazon.com
Deleted! ,
by Robert L. Wise
Paperback, Thomas Nelson,
2003, 302, $12 A
young Jordanian has broken the code designed to protect movie disks.
Colorado Springs Detective Sam Sloan gets roped in by the FBI to track
down the missing program, and he, in turn, enlists the help of his
17-year-old daughter, a budding hacker, putting his entire family in
jeopardy.
The author is an Evangelical Episcopal bishop and this novel has a
heavy-handed millennial Christian message that I found distracting. Lot's
of computers, though, especially cracker programs, discussion boards and
programming, well integrated into the plot and decently explained.
Reviewed in March,
2004
You can buy
this book from Amazon.com
Paranoia ,
by Joseph Finder
Hardback, St. Martin's,
January, 2004, 432 pages $24.95 As a joke, Adam Cassidy hacks into the
corporate kitty to throw a retirement bash for a nice guy on the loading
dock. Caught with his hand in the till, he's given the choice between
spending the rest of his life in jail for embezzlement or getting a job
with a competitor and spying on his new boss. He decides to spy and, after
getting a souped-up resume and a short course in spycraft, gets hired by
Trion working directly for the CEO. Torn between his growing affection for
his new boss and the sword his old employer hanging over his head, Adam
spies with the best of them while looking for a way out.
A marvelous book with engaging characters, great humor and an
edge-of-your-seat plot. Lots of high-tech details: IP phones; tiny LCD
screens; PDAs; optical chips; flash slots; PowerPoint (I loved this bit);
keystroke capturers and proximity chip replicators; pin-compatible ASICs;
and last but not least, the Apple Newton. If you're not a techie you'll
still get it, but if you are you will glory in the details of life in a
high-tech corporation. Highly, highly recommended. Finder was a real find
for me.
Reviewed in March,
2004
You can buy
this book from Amazon.com
Doctored Evidence , by Donna Leon
Hardcover,
Atlantic/Gove, March, 2004, 256 pages, $22.00 When a nasty old woman is murdered, the police are eager to
close the case by pinning it on her Romanian housekeeper, who fled the
scene and in soon killed in an abortive chase. Not Commissario Guido
Brunetti. Working behind Vice-Questore Scarpa's back, he and his
sidekicks, Inspector Vianello and Signorina Elettra, the Scarpa's
secretary, hack deep into computer, banking and phone records and find a
trail of blackmail that points to a more plausible killer.
This is the 13th book in the series but only the third to be published
in the United States. I've read them all as British imports and am in love
with all of the characters, the feasts prepared by Brunetti's wife Paola
and the fog-shrouded Venetian backdrop. The elegant mysterious Signorina
Elettra is the computer guru of the bunch, seemingly able to break in to
any database and methodically passing her skills onto apt pupil Vianello.
With just enough high tech content to make the cut as a computer crime,
this is a wonderful series that should be read from the beginning to savor
the full effect.
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Estranged twins Julie and Sammi Gordon couldn't be more different: Julie's a buttoned-down left-brained neurophysiologist; Sammi's an impulsive right-brained artist. When Sammi slips into an inexplicable coma-like state, Julie flied from her lab in Boston to be at her side in London, and quickly realizes that her memoryscapes project - a virtual reality program intended to revive the memories of Alzheimer's patients - could be the key to her sister's survival. 
Chicago detective Paul Turner's sons are attending a Science Fiction Convention so he is conveniently on the scene when a supposedly beloved and undeniable popular writer is skewered with a broadsword.