Reviewed by L.D.Y.
Mass-market paperback, 505 pages, 2001
Rating: 9/10
Reason for Reading: Deaver was recommened at BookCrazy for a good thriller.
Synopsis: A cracker with the nickname Phate is using the Internet to collect information on innocent people – so he can then kill them. Baffled at his skill, police spring Wyatt Gillette, super-hacker, from jail to try and trace Phate and stop his killing spree.
Why you should read this book: The Blue Nowhere is a suspenseful read, full of twists and turns that will keep you turning the pages as fast as you can. It’s well-written and realistic enough to make you paranoid about everything you’ve ever posted on the Internet. Great for a summer read.
Why you should avoid this book: Deaver painstakingly simplifies all the Internet slang to understandable terms, but with the heavy reliance on the Internet to the storyline, this isn’t for the person who refers to a computer as ‘that box thingy with the television screen.’
Opening paragraph:
The battered white van had made her uneasy.
Lara Gibson sat at the bar of Vesta’s Grill on De Anza in Cupertino, California, gripping the cold stem of her martini glass and ignoring the two young chip-jocks standing nearby, casting flirtatious glances at her.
Fabulous quotes:
Phate listened to the inane story as the girl continued to drone on and on. The little brat kept up the prattle without the least encouragement from old Uncle Irv, whose only comfort at the moment was the razor-sharp knife at home and the anticipation of Donald Wingate’s reaction when the businessman received the plastic bag containing a rather gruesome present later that day. In accordance with the point system in the Access game, Phate himself would be the UPS deliveryman who dropped off the package and got the signature of D. Wingate on the receipt. This would earn him 25 points, the highest for any particular murder.
Jamie Turner shook his head furiously to fling off the pain and horror but the stinging only got worse. He was screaming ‘No, no, no,’ the words muffled under the strong grip of the hand around his mouth.
The man leaned close and began to whisper in the boy’s ear but Jamie had no clue what he said; the pain – and the horror – consumed him like fire in dry brush.
Also Recommended: Post-Mortem by Patricia Cornwell; The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen; The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen; Forty Words For Sorrow by Giles Blunt.
Also by this author: The Sleeping Doll; The Cold Moon; More Twisted; The Twelfth Card; Garden of Beasts; Twisted; The Stone Monkey; The Vanished Man; Speaking in Tongues; The Empty Chair; The Devil’s Teardrop; The Coffin Dancer; The Bone Collector; A Maiden’s Grave; Praying for Sleep; The Lessons of her Death; Mistress of Justice; Hard News; Death of a Blue Movie Star; Manhattan Is My Beat; Hell’s Kitchen; Bloody River Blues; Shallow Graves.
Author’s website: jefferydeaver.com
© Lisa Yanaky 2003-2007