The Blue Nowhere

By: Jeffery Deaver

Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris

Length: 6 hrs

Publisher's summary

When a sadistic hacker, code-named Phate, sets his sights on Silicon Valley, his victims never know what hit them. He infiltrates their computers, invades their lives, and lures them to their deaths. To Phate, each murder is like a big, challenging computer hack: every time he succeeds, he must challenge himself anew - by taking his methodology to a higher level, and aiming at bigger targets.

Desperate, the head of the California Sate Police Computer Crimes Division frees Wyatt Gillette, imprisoned for hacking, to aid the investigation - against the loud protests of the rest of the division. With an obsession emblematic of hackers, Gillette fervently attempts to trace Phate's insidious computer virus back to its source. Then Phate delivers a huge blow, murdering one of the division's own - a "wizard" who had pioneered the Internet - and the search takes on a zealous intensity.

Gillette and Detective Frank Bishop - an old-school homicide cop who's accustomed to forensic sleuthing - make an uneasy team. But with a merciless and brilliant killer like Phate in their crosshairs, and his twisted game reaching a fever pitch, they must utilize every ounce of their talents to stop him.

©2001 Jeffery Deaver (P)2001 Simon & Schuster Inc., AUDIOWORKS Is an Imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Critic reviews

"This novel is, in hacker terms, 'totally moby' - the most exciting, and most vivid, fiction yet about the neverland hackers call 'the blue nowhere.'" (Publishers Weekly)

No MUD slinging here!

Wow, this was the first audio book I listened to in years. What a great way to get back into the swing! Being a technophile myself, I loved Deaver's accuracy with which his protagonist works his magic.

If you have any curiosity about MUDs and cyber crime, get this book.
If you just love a good mystery, thriller with great plot twists and a satisfying ending, get this book.

If you are not that technically savvy, not to worry, you can easily follow the plot regardless.

EXCELLENT!!!

i must say that this has to be one of the most suspenseful and intriguing books that ive read in a long time. I couldnt put it down! The subject matter, the characters, the twists!!!...excellent. Most of all, one doesnt have to be a computer whiz to enjoy. the way everything is explained in detail, so its like your walking among the characters themselves. Deliciously Delightful.

New milieu

Blue Nowhere is an interesting book that takes us to a new milieu for the detective thriller. The plot is intriguing, the villian sufficiently evil, and in general this is an entertaining read. The writing seemed a little bit amateurish (this may be the author's first novel. I'm not sure) but that doesn't detract much. However, the constant explanations of computer-eze terms and acronyms got to be a bit trying. Seemed a lot like an adolescent trying to impress with his "inside" knowledge. These "spontaneous" explanations between the characters often were forced and unnatural and temporarily brought the narrative to a halt -- or at least a hiccup.

A little outdated tech wise but a great story

This is one of my all-time favorite audible books. The story is amazing edge of your seat exciting and you don’t guess the whole thing the way you do and so many thrillers.

And the narrator is such a good voice actor.

lulz

This book was pretty lame, all in all. Terminology was defined all the way through the book. Seriously, I'm starting to think it was done just for filler, rather than to educate anyone.

And some of the terminology was pretty lame. Code slinger? Does anybody call themselves that? If so, I'd punch them right in the face for being a bigger dork than I. But you know, there are fans of tech slang. I guess I can't fault the book for that.

What I can fault the book for is for being pretty much movie-tech, rather than reality-tech. By that I mean, the technology was painfully fictitious. What kind of hacker "logs into a c-prompt". Lame. What kind of hacker in the internet age uses dos?

Why is trap-door some kind of internet business killer? We have the kind of stuff all over now-a-days and most end-users don't even care. My aunt puts her credit card into a website knowing she's got a virus installed, but doesn't even think that that virus transmits the keys she enters. She don't care, and neither does anyone else. TRAPDOOR is a joke. I'm going to make fun of it in IRC tonight.

Also, did this book take place during the age of BBS or during the internet revolution? I don't even know. It's somewhere in the middle, in this book.

Anyway, all the negatives aside. I managed to sit through the whole thing, so it's not all bad. It got good about 3/4 of the way through when the author couldn't define any more words because they'd all been defined. Also, Phate was a total jerkhole, so it was fun to find out what happened!

OK if you love computers

I couldn't make myself listen to all of this book. I work with computers all day, but this was for someone obsessed with them!!!