Book Review: The Blue Nowhere

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

The Blue Nowhere     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Jeffery Wilds Deaver
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Internet   Serial Killer
Simon & Schuster, May 2001, $24.95, 432 pp.

Two brilliant hackers live in the United States. One of them is a killer while the other resides in prison. Phate sees the world as a global computer game searching for difficult targets to kill. He uses his program Trapdoor to enter any computer system he wishes to go into. There he learns intimate details about his intended victim and ultimately murders them.

Wyatt Gillette convicted for hacking currently lives in the Federal Men's Correctional Facility in San Jose. LAPD temporarily frees Wyatt so that he can help them catch the killing hacker. Wyatt agrees to assist because he plans to vanish into THE BLUE NOWHERE (net). Phate leans that his old cyber crony searches for him turning this into a hacker's duel to the death.

Although this is a not a Lincoln Rhyme novel, the story line centers on individuals who prefer to spend their entire life inside THE BLUE NOWHERE even giving up sleep and other sustenance to do so. Jeffrey Deavers portrays these souls as addicts in the same vein as alcoholics. The main character needs to hack because it is there in the sense of climbing Everest or K2. Mr. Deaver has written another winning tale that will send him to the top of the hard copy best-selling charts.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner