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The Blue Nowhere Jeffery Deaver
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Imagine yourself in a bar. A man approaches you. He doesn't seem familiar but he knows your past, your job, your hobbies and your ex-boyfriend's name. You go for a drink. This is your first - and last - mistake. You're the latest victim of the latest killer. A man who can rip away the thin carapace protecting the secrets of your life - before ending it. Streetwise cop Frank Bishop has been charged with the job of halting the mounting body count. He enlists the help of Wyatt Gillette, a young hacker who himself has fallen on the wrong side of the law. They must stalk this faceless criminal through both the real and the virtual universe, combining their old and new world skills to beat this mastermind. But how do you stop a man who knows your every move? You must go into the blue nowhere... |
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| Reader Reviews | |
Review by Chrissi (300601) Rating (9/10) Review
by Chrissi The story opens with a killer targeting a woman who runs a website that provides other women with information on how best to protect themselves in modern times. She lives by her own guidelines and he uses them to trap and then kill her. The police unit set up to deal with computer crime are more used to dealing with fraud and things like that than they are the more invasive types of crime that this seems to be. They are worried that the killer will strike again but they don't know how he got the personal information about his victim. The theory is that he has a way of getting into people's computers that has not yet been figured out, and to investigate this they need a computer hacker. The hacker in question is Wyatt Gillette, in prison and in solitary confinement for using the computers in the library to go online, a privilege that he has been barred from as part of his conviction. He is a wizard, a genius hacker who is gifted with the ability to write phat code and he may be able to find a way to trace the killer. The book follows the hunt for the killer from the point of view of those trying to catch him whilst watching him plan for and kill other victims. It is tense and very well written, and the heroes are engaging and likeable. Wyatt is a character with a great deal of potential, a rogue with a history, he is harmless and well meaning but he just has to know how things work, the very trait which landed him in prison. The use of Wyatt allows for an interesting sideline to the plot when the story takes an unexpected twist. (But it is a thriller, so I shan't say any more.) It did not take me very long to read this book, there are a few similarities to a novel called F2F, by Phillip Finch, also about a serial killer targeting people using the internet. As
the potential for good in the internet is as great as the potential
for harm I think that I could handle a few more books about compu-geek-crime
as I have really enjoyed them up to date.  Review
by Nigel The opening scene is quite creepy. The killer uses social engineering to pass himself off as harmless and safe even though the victim is a self-defence guru and should be the ultimate in wary. However, it is very plausible and she ends up paying the price, all to earn the killer extra points for getting such a difficult target. As you probably guess from that he is playing a kind of game that has spilt over into real life. I won't say much more other than that he has serious reality problems. The good guy in all this is a hacker called Wyatt Gillette who is nicely crafted by the author and is someone you instantly like, even though you know he has a dark past. All becomes clear as the story progresses to an unexpected conclusion.
The story is very good, well written and pacy, as you would expect
from any Jeffery Deaver novel and will keep you riveted to the
page, computer fan or not. |
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9/10
8/10