The Blue Nowhere: A Novel [Mass Market Paperback]

Jeffery Deaver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 26, 2002

His code name is Phate -- a sadistic computer hacker who infiltrates people's computers, invades their lives, and with chilling precision lures them to their deaths. To stop him, the authorities free imprisoned former hacker Wyatt Gillette to aid the investigation. Teamed with old-school homicide detective Frank Bishop, Gillette must combine their disparate talents to catch a brilliant and merciless killer.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In this 21st century version of the "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral," two computer wizards engage in the kind of high-tech combat that only a hacker could love. Wyatt Gillette, a cybergenius who's never used his phenomenal talent for evil, is sitting in a California jail doing time for a few harmless computer capers when he gets a temporary reprieve--a chance to help the Computer Crimes Unit of the state police nail a cracker (a criminally inclined hacker) called Phate who's using his ingenious program, Trapdoor, to lure innocent victims to their death by infiltrating their computers. Gillette and Phate were once the kings of cyberspace--the Blue Nowhere of the title--but Phate has gone way past the mischievous electronic pranks they once pulled and crossed over to the dark side. While Trapdoor can hack its way into any computer, it's Phate's skill at "social engineering" as well as his remarkable coding ability that makes him such a menace to society. As Wyatt explains to the policeman who springs him from prison so that he can find and stop Phate before he kills again, "It means conning somebody, pretending you're someone you're not. Hackers do it to get access to data bases and phone lines and pass codes. The more facts about somebody you can feed back to them, the more they believe you and the more they'll do what you want them to."

Bestselling author Jeffery Deaver (The Empty Chair, The Devil's Teardrop) ratchets up the suspense one line of code at a time; his terrific pacing drives the narrative to a thrilling and explosive conclusion. This thriller is bound to induce paranoia in anyone who still believes he can hide his deepest secrets from anyone with the means, motive, and modem to ferret them out. --Jane Adams --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

How do you write a truly gripping thriller about people staring into computer screens? Many have tried, none have succeeded until now. Leave it to Deaver, the most clever plotter on the planet, to do it by simply applying the same rules of suspense to onscreen action as to offscreen. Much of the action in this novel about the hunt for an outlaw hacker turned homicidal maniac does takes place in the real world, but much else plays out in cyberspace as a team of California homicide and computer crime cops chase the infamous "wizard" hacker known as Phate. The odds run against the cops. With his skills, Phate can not only change identities at will (a knack known as "social engineering" in hacking parlance) but can manipulate all computerized records about himself. The cops have a wizard of their own, however: a former online companion of Phate's, a hacker doing time for having allegedly cracked the Department of Defense's encryption program. He's Wyatt Gillette, coveting Pop-Tarts (the hacker's meal of choice) and computers, but also the wife he lost when he went to prison and it's his tortured personality that gives this novel its heart as Wyatt is sprung from prison, but only for as long as it takes to track down Phate. The mad hacker, meanwhile, no longer able to discern between the virtual and the real, has adapted a notorious online role-playing game to the world of flesh and blood, with innocent humans as his prey. As he twists suspense and tension to gigahertz levels, Deaver springs an astonishing number of surprises on the reader: Who is Phate's accomplice? What are Wyatt's real motives? Who is the traitor among the cops? His real triumph, though, is to make the hacker world come alive in all its midnight, reality-cracking intensity. This novel is, in hacker lingo, "totally moby" the most exciting, and most vivid, fiction yet about the neverland hackers call "the blue nowhere." Agent, Sterling Lord Literistic.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Books (February 26, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671042262
• ISBN-13: 978-0671042264
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (206 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #359,692 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #50 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers > Technothrillers

More About the Author

Jeffery Deaver was born outside of Chicago in 1950. His father was an advertising copywriter and his mother was a homemaker. He has one younger sister who writes novels for teenagers ' Julie Reece Deaver.

Deaver wrote his first book ' which consisted of two entire chapters ' when he was eleven, and he's been writing ever since. An award-winning poet and journalist, he has also written and performed his own songs around the country. After receiving a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Missouri, Deaver worked as a magazine writer, then, to gain the background needed to become a legal correspondent for The New York Times or Wall Street Journal, he enrolled at Fordham Law School. After graduation he decided to practice law for a time and worked for several years as an attorney for a large Wall Street firm. It was during his long commute to and from the office that he began writing the type of fiction he enjoyed reading: suspense novels. In 1990 he started to write full time.

The author of twenty-two novels, Deaver has been nominated for six Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, an Anthony award, a Gumshoe Award, and is a three-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Reader's Award for Best Short Story of the Year. In 2001, he won the W.H. Smith Thumping Good Read Award for his Lincoln Rhyme novel The Empty Chair. In 2004, he was awarded the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain's Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for Garden Of Beasts and the Short Story Dagger for "The Weekender." Translated into 35 languages, his novels have appeared on a number of bestseller lists around the world, including the New York Times, the London Times and the Los Angeles Times. The Bone Collector was a feature release from Universal Pictures, starring Denzel Washington as Lincoln Rhyme. A Maiden's Grave was made into an HBO film retitled Dead Silence, starring James Garner and Marlee Matlin.

Jeff has also released two collections of his short stories, called Twisted and More Twisted.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast and well-thought, May 18, 2001

By 

Rob Lawrence (Tampa, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Blue Nowhere : A Novel (Hardcover)

This book surprised me on many levels, and I start by saying that I highly recommend it. As a person who likes to savor books, I read this one in two evenings. After Speaking in Tongues, I was a little wary of getting excited about another Jeffery Deaver's book. But as a programmer, I decide to pick it up because it is about something I have an interest in. Wyatt Gillette, a convicted felon, and the California Computer Crimes Unit attempt to stop a man, and an unknown accomplice, who uses his computer for the ultimate evil: murder. Jeffery Deaver throws out a few curve balls to keep the reader guessing, but avoids the unbelievable twists that seem to be rampant in thrillers. Generally I find that hi-tech fictional works are usual laughable in their portrayal and explanations of the technologies involved. Along this line,I have long felt that Michael Crichton is one of the best authors in researching his topics. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that Mr. Deaver did a great job in his own; all-in-all, his events and explanations were realistic and they reflect his opinion that the reader is not stupid, without going so far as to be a textbook on the subject. It is a very fast moving book, and there are complaints that the characters are not deeply developed. I attribute this to two things. It would take away from the quick pace of the story, and furthermore it is unnecessary. You learn enough about Wyatt and Phate without needless filler. Don't get me wrong, there are a couple of spots where I crinkled my nose in disbelief, but it is a work of fiction and it is a very good one at that.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars an unfortunate thing to happen to such a great writer, January 2, 2003

By 

Seth Strong (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Blue Nowhere: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

I have always enjoyed reading Jefferey Deaver, but after finishing The Blue Nowhere, I was thoroughly disappointed. The plot first seems compelling and interesting enough: a jailed hacker is freed to work with a detective to capture a dangerous person named Phate, who uses computers to kill people. Although the characters seemed interesting at first, I quickly realized there was absolutely no depth to any of them. The intentionally misspelled computer terms ("warez" or "phreaking") were very amusing. During most parts of the book, it seemed that Deaver had just done a large amount of research on the subject and then with no knowledge of the topic, he sloppily compiled it into a story. Yet, the major error of the book was the timeframe of the events of the plot. All of these major events occur within several days, which is entirely improbable considering the numerous murders that occurred during the novel. Bottom Line: The Blue Nowhere has a compelling storyline, but its numerous errors are the cause of its downfall. Check it out, but don't buy it.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A first rate thriller!, May 2, 2001

By 

Debbie Lee Wesselmann (the Lehigh Valley, PA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (2008 HOLIDAY TEAM)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Blue Nowhere : A Novel (Hardcover)

From the moment I cracked this book, it became my downfall. I couldn't leave it, even for a few minutes, without longing for its fast-paced, utterly addictive plot. From the first paragraph to the last, this novel captured my imagination so fully that I wanted to skip meals and postpone sleep, much like the hackers portrayed in its pages.

The novel begins with the murder of a highly security conscious woman. From the first few pages, the reader knows this is no ordinary murder, although the chapters to come will reveal exactly how extraordinary the killer is. When the police suspect a skilled hacker who has taken his role-playing games into the real world, they enlist the aid of a convicted felon and "wizard" (an expert hacker) who is granted a temporary release from prison. At first glance, this is not a novel premise, but HOW the cracker accomplishes his murders elevates this story to the level of pure creepiness, reflecting the level of technology our society has acquired and our blind confidence in it. The killer's intelligence and intimate knowledge of code make him a particularly elusive and dangerous suspect.

Deaver's plot twists and turns so many times, giving false clues in the best spirit of genre and then dropping new ones, so the reader makes dozens of guesses about the outcome but probably will come up short. Although Deaver does make some clumsy moves (for example, dialogue often takes unnatural directions for the sake of exposition, and sometimes his facts are slightly off the mark) and can be repetitive, all in all his slips don't detract from this in-the-throat thriller. Yes, the characters aren't fully realized and verge on being types, but hey, you don't read this kind of book for characterizations. You read it to lose yourself in a suspenseful plot, and Deaver certainly delivers here. Deaver is such a good storyteller that he can make you both gullible and paranoid at the same time. Right now I can't even type this review without a hitch of doubt.

Next time your computer crashes, or your typing seems sluggish, or you meet someone in the street who looks vaguely familiar and who reminds you of who he is, you'll break out with little beads of sweat, wondering if the world really is how it appears. This residual effect is Deaver's greatest triumph.