Mystery/Thriller Book Reviews
Page One of SevenDigital Fortress by Dan Brown
St. Martin's Press, Feb., 1998.Hardcover, 371 pages.
ISBN: 031218087X.
Ordering information:
Amazon.com.
The ultra-secret NSA (National Security Agency) is responsible
for monitoring and protecting the U.S. communications. Its secret
weapon is the multi-billion dollar supercomputer called TRANSLTR
which can instantly decode any encrypted message in cyberspace,
allowing the NSA to stop numerous terrorist threats, some of them
nuclear. TRANSLTR can decode almost instantly any message
sent and intercepted anywhere in the world over the Internet -- until now.
When TRANSLTR meets a code it cannot break, the agency
calls in its top cryptographer Susan Fletcher, a beautiful and brilliant
mathematical genius, and her fiancé, David Becker, a professor and
foreign language specialist who has assisted the NSA before. While Becker
is dispatched to Spain to retrieve the password to the new code which
disappeared after Tankado's murder,
Susan starts to dig into the origins of the
mysterious code known as Digital Fortress, finding layers upon
layers of shocking secrets, lies and betrayals. Programmed by computer genius
Ensei Tankado, Digital Fortress could literally topple
the U.S. government and open the world to terrorist annihilation. Tankado
is blackmailing the U.S. Government from his grave and the race is on to find
Tankado and break the code before the U.S. government's entire security
system is irretrievably breached giving terrorists access to everything including
nuclear missile launch codes.
Digital Fortress is an exciting and thought-provoking debut from author Dan Brown. With nonstop action, intrigue and a fascinating plot Digital Fortress is an example of the techno-thriller at its very best. But what makes Digital Fortress stand out from the crowd are its other elements: a real love story and an examination of the struggles between right and wrong and protection of the public versus the preservation of that same public's privacy. The issues raised in Digital Fortress concerning privacy of communications and the very real threat of terrorism will have readers thinking about Digital Fortress long after they have put the book down. Brown does an excellent job at presenting technological wizardry and cutting edge intelligence information in such a way so as to please techno lovers and yet make the complex subject of encryption interesting and easy to understand. A must read for lovers of intrigue, thrillers and for anyone who loves an exciting story with a complex, layered plot and intriguing characters.
--Claire E. White
Extreme Justice by William Bernhardt
Ballantine, Feb., 1998.Hardcover, 291 pages.
ISBN: 0345407377.
Ordering information:
Amazon.com.
Ben Kincaid is an ex-lawyer who
is living a stress-free life as a jazz musician in
a local club. He has left his
successful legal career to follow his dream of
being an amateur jazz pianist. However, his
legal career won't leave him alone. One
evening in the bar as he and his band are about
to perform a body falls from an overhead
lamp shade. The dead body belongs to
a beautiful young woman and a ghastly smile
has been carved into her face. The body
belongs to Cajun Lilly, a singer and an
ex-girlfriend of the club owner, Earl Bonner.
The cops quickly blame Bonner for the murder,
because of his prior conviction for the murder of a man
who died in a similar fashion with a
grotesque smile carved in his face.
Kincaid feels his friend Bonner is innocent of
both murders and re-enters the legal realm again
as Bonner's lawyer. As Kincaid digs deeper, he
finds himself in for a tough case with his own
life in danger from the gruesome murderer --
whoever it may be.
Extreme Justice is an exciting and entertaining thriller. Author William Bernhardt's characters are likeable and readers will indentify with Kincaid, the lawyer who just wants to get away from it all -- but can't. Another excellent installment in the "Justice" series of courtroom drama.
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