The Blue Nowhere - Jeffery Deaver
Phreaking, Hacking, Cracking - if you didn't know the difference you will now! - The Blue Nowhere - Jeffery Deaver Fiction Book

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Phreaking, Hacking, Cracking - if you didn't know the difference you will now!
The Blue Nowhere - Jeffery Deaver

eleanorofnaboo

Member Name: eleanorofnaboo

Product:

The Blue Nowhere - Jeffery Deaver

Date: 23/02/02, updated on 24/02/02 (77 review reads)

Rating:

Advantages: fantastic read

Disadvantages: it ended

Lara Gibson is a self employed business woman in Silicon Valley and is 'the queen of urban protection' - she taught people how to look after themselves, how to be safe. Chapter one of the book brings about her death, by someone she thought she knew - a friend of a friend. As it turns out she was conned, a swift piece of 'social engineering' had turned this young stranger into someone she would trust and would walk to her death with.

'Phate' is a wizard, a hacker, a kracker. He has invented, along with the help of his anonymous friend 'Shawn', a piece of virtually untraceable software which allows him access to people's lives - and ultimately gives him the means of taking that life.

Gillette is a wizard also, a hacker. He is sitting in prison for hacking into the Department of Defence computers and allegedly running a piece of software that could encrypt their 'unbreakable' Standard 12 software.

The police know that the only way they can locate 'Phate' is to play him at his own game and go in through the computer, the only man who could match the talent of Phate is Gillette, and they have to get him out of prison to help them before more people are killed in the deadly game that Phate is playing.

The book is very detailed with computer information although for those that are new to computers and the world of hackers there is a glossary at the start to help you. It has all the usual police procedural information you would expect from Deaver, along with the usual plot twists.

All through the book you are shown how each character works with each other but also how each are working against the others and with their own motives. At points you would think that DoD and cops were on a different side! Part of the story is trying to find out the identity of Shawn who is constantly updating Phate as to the progress of the police investigation, allowing Phate to stay at least
one step ahead in a lot of places ? I didn?t work it out at all who it was until it was spelt out for me, although with each page I turned I thought I had it sussed.

Reading the way in which Phate invades each character's life; it makes you wonder just how safe the world is with everything on computers - no code is unbreakable... if it was designed by a man then it can be cracked by a man (or woman!!). As it says in the book - you used to be able to disappear because there were no computers to trace you - now you can disappear because there are computers to cover up and delete traces of you.

I would recommend this book to absolutely everyone, and those who have read others of Deaver's books will not be the slightest bit disappointed with this one, although there are none of the regular characters here (well, I have not read every last one of his books yet ? but none of these characters have been in any of the books I have read!!).

Here's the technical stuff:
The Blue Nowhere
Jeffery Deaver
ISBN 0-340-76750-2
430 pages - hardback edition


Summary: