Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: Technothriller
Approximate word count: 105-110,000 words
Availability
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Author:
Born and
raised in Boston, David Haskell now lives with his wife and daughter near
Tokyo, Japan. This is his first novel.
Description:
“In a world
overshadowed by the impendence of terrorism, with pandemics threatening an
equal measure of havoc, Thermo-Magnetic Imaging machines represent a seemingly
perfect solution. But as privacy and health concerns grow ever more complex,
this cutting edge technology delivers more than anyone had bargained for. While
the forces behind the scenes fight to conceal their true agenda, the public
struggles to cope with a new paradigm so invasive their innermost secrets are
laid bare under its powerful lens.
Rob Folsom
is a civil liberties activist, a staunch defender of privacy rights. Rosa
Perez, a government agent specializing in surveillance, seems an unlikely
candidate for him to represent. As Rob is pulled into her world of high-tech
spying, corporate intrigue, and black ops government agencies, he becomes
caught in a perilous game of cat and mouse. As the target of interest switches
from client to advocate, Rob has to find a way to stop them before they
sabotage everything he has worked for...”
Appraisal:
The concept
of this near future technothriller is a good one. With recent revelations about
the actions of the NSA, if you can picture the technology depicted as being on
the near horizon (not that big a stretch), it is both timely and credible. The
potential for a good story is here.
However,
the story as delivered fell short of that potential. The reasons are three-fold.
First, is the technical, with more polish needed to shake out the numerous
typos and grammar errors.
The second
area are issues of writing craft, with multiple instances of head hopping, a
tendency to tell something that should have been shown, and a character or the
narrator magically knowing something that they couldn’t.
The final
area of concern were things happening that made no sense. Some were minor. For
example when the protagonist saw a squirrel hop from a tree branch as his car
was crashing into the tree. Another was a sequence where a couple of the
characters had to attend a meeting, sneak into another part of a building
(which involves bypassing a security measure to get there), break into a computer,
locate and download some files from that computer, and get out of the building,
all in thirty minutes. I’m not sure
which was less believable, that the characters thought they could do this or
that they managed to do it without getting caught.
Others were
major, at least to me. For example during a court case a judge allowed the
protagonist, Rob, to call a “rebuttal witness” in the middle of the other side
putting on their case. Anyone who has watched more than one or two fictional
court cases in a movie or on a TV show would be left scratching their head,
wondering when the rules changed.
FYI:
Some adult
language.
Format/Typo Issues:
A large
number of proofing and copy editing issues.
Rating: ** Two stars
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