Bad Memory - Hardcover

Franklet, Duane

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0671000659 ISBN 13: 9780671000653

Publisher: Atria, 1997

Synopsis

When a major computer corporation receives a demand for one million dollars to prevent the destruction of its entire network, troubleshooter Barry Shepard is forced to counter additional threats against his own family.

About this title

About the Author

Duane Franklet has done computer troubleshooting for Fortune 500 companies and around the world. He is the president of his own company, Data Tracking Associates, based in Houston.

Reviews

An absorbing all-business first novel about a Houston-based multinational (bearing more than a passing resemblance to COMPAQ and Dell Computer) under siege by a cyberage extortionist whose wry nom de guerre is Hektor. Barry Shepard, the number three man at Simtec (a high-tech enterprise headed by a woman), is mildly disturbed to discover that his company has been delivering wrongly configured PCs to a host of its mail-order customers. When he receives an unsigned letter asking for $1 million to halt the online incursions that are causing the costly problems, Barry immediately informs his superiors. But the mad hacker's timing is impeccable. Less than a year after the installation of marketing whiz Diane Hughes (who barely knows her ASCII from an ellipsis) as CEO, Simtec is still rent by internal strife and unable to mount an effective response to the threat. While the company dithers, Hektor (a.k.a. James Murphy Dupree, a manipulative genius) ups his financial demands to $5 million and intensifies the pressure, misprogramming production- line robots, erasing file servers, destroying backup tapes, and otherwise wreaking in-house havoc. Wall Street and the media catch wind of Simtec's woes, and Barry recruits professional help to join in the increasingly desperate effort to fight and find the blackmailer. The stakes and tension mount as the now mortal enemies stalk one another via the Internet. With a state-of-the-art assist from his independent contractors, Barry eventually succeeds in hunting down Dupree/Hektor and the corporate Judas who gave him an inside track at the embattled company, albeit not before he survives a terrifying crawl through a live-wired cabling duct that has already killed one would-be troubleshooter. An impressively suspenseful, user-friendly debut with appeal both for the barely computer literate and for their nerdy betters. On a scale of one to five, then, four bytes. ($25,000 ad/promo) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In Franklet's first novel, a large computer company named Simtec Corporation is infiltrated by a malevolent hacker. Minor ordering problems mushroom overnight into a major crisis situation, and easily treated viruses turn into plagues that threaten the future of the company. The situation quickly escalates when Barry Shepard, the company troubleshooter, receives a ransom note. Simtec must deliver $1 million to the mysterious "Hektor" (as in Troy) or the computer network will be destroyed, all will be lost, and Barry's family may be a casualty as well. This novel of technological catastrophe pays a lot of lip service to Michael Crichton, who may be responsible for the shocking number of wannabes that turn out thrillers like this that employ technospeak as an excuse for poor writing. The characters, from Barry to the easily identified villain, are one-dimensional; the real personalities are the computers. Somewhere, HAL from 2001 must be laughing. Not recommended, but buy sparingly if your computer geeks request.?Lesley C. Keogh, Bethel P.L., Danbury, Ct.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Atria
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0671000659
• ISBN 13: 9780671000653
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384