Customer Reviews

Conspiracy.Com: A Novel

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Stanford honors graduate and computer engineer "extraordinaire" Michael Ryan is being courted by every big name high-tech company imaginable, including MicroSoft and Oracle. However, like Grisham's protagonist in _The Firm_, Michael gives in to the promise of a bright and very lucrative financial future with an unknown company, this one named SoftCorp, whose only client is the Internal Revenue Service. What Michael doesn't know (but we all easily deduct) is that SoftCorp has some serious skeletons in the closet, and will go to any lengths to protect their company's secrets. SoftCorp is also the focus of a botched FBI investigation in which one agent and one informant have already been killed. When Karen Frost, the current special agent in charge, approaches Michael and his wife Victoria about helping with the investigation, they all become disposable pawns in a deadly game of hide and seek masterminded by one corrupt individual. Pretty soon people with powerful political agendas, (and corporate executives who were puppets to these agendas) start to die, leaving Michael to use his expert computer programming skills, and a little ingenuity, if he is to keep himself and Victoria alive.

This book is a cyber thriller/political intrigue mix. Through his protagonist R.J Pineiro introduces us to the high-tech world of virtual reality programming and back door politics, without drowning us in a heap of technical jargon. He also shows how vulnerable our economy is to the advances taking place in technology. What makes this story line work so well is the high tech solutions used to wither away from the constant threat of danger, and the unrelenting pace and suspense built in by the author. Pineiro really knows how to keep his readers on the edge of their seats...when the action gets really hot, his chapters become shorter, making the plot race almost as fast as your heartbeat. This is a must read if you love explosive suspense thrillers with a good dose of high-tech solutions thrown into the mix.

4 and 1/2 stars...only because the basic premise is all too familiar...but Pineiro digresses sharply from Grisham-dom early on with his cyber-tech theme. And the ending is superb.

See story summary above.

R.J. Pineiro comes through again with another hi-tech thriller. The action blends smoothly with the techno-babble in this outstanding adventure featuring the IRS and FBI along with some other very powerful characters. You find yourself cheering on the underdogs with vehemence rarely felt in a novel. There were a few flaws in the editing, but overall I felt it was a well rounded story with a high entertainment value. Keep it up RJ.

Highly recommended.

Earlier, I had read "Shutdown" by R.J. Pineiro. I had found that book a real page turner and one of the most unputdownable books I had ever read. (Read my review of that book). Well, if it is possible, Conspiracy.com is even more unputdownable than "Shutdown". To use a cliché, R.J. Pineiro has done it again.

Michael Ryan is a fresh graduate, a computer genius specializing in AI. He has a beautiful wife Victoria Ryan, who is an MBA in finance. His future beckons in the Silicon Valley. He is confident that he can land a job at Microsoft or Cisco but then, a company called SoftCorp makes him an offer he cannot refuse.

SoftCorp is doing some work for IRS. Michael starts working for them. And then FBI agent Karen Frost contacts the Ryans and informs them that all is not as it should be at SoftCorp. Money laundering in billions of dollars is going on behind the façade of SoftCorp. Shapiro and Wittica, the top hats at SoftCorp are deeply involved in it and so are several officers of the IRS, a senator and a multi-millionaire Cuban called Orion Yanez.

They are a dangerous bunch - so dangerous that they snuff out several FBI agents without batting an eye. Karen Frost and the Ryans have to succeed where others have failed. And the pace mounts and mounts and the reader comes up for air only after finishing the book.

There are several elements in this book that are similar to the ones in "Shutdown": the starting scene where an FBI agent is caught by the criminals and brutally murdered; the hi-tech atmosphere; a female FBI agent; involvement of foreign powers (it was Japan in "Shutdown", it is Cuba in this book). There is also an echo of John Grisham's "The Firm", but of course that could be a co-incidence.

Irrespective of the above, I reiterate the fact that the book is a veritable page turner. Recommended reading.

Ahmed A. Khan
http://ahmedakhan.journalspace.com

I have to admit that what first grabbed be about this book while browsing through my favorite Houston bookstore was its cover artwork. So I picked it up right there and read through the prologue and first chapter and went straight to the cashier, finishing it two days later.

I'm a lover of thrillers and collect them in hardback. This one way exceeded my expectations. When I read a LeCarre or a DeMille, I pretty much know what to expect: top-notch fiction. Here I got that and much more, plus it was not expected.

So, on to the book. Enter Michael Patrick Ryan, Stanford University's top graduate in computer engineer, already in possession of job offers from all the big guys, plus married to a beautiful and talented woman, Victoria Ryan, also a Stanford graduate in finance. To cut to the chase, they get lured to Austin after SoftCorp, a little-known software company with a single client, the IRS, overwhelms him with a top salary, bonuses, stock options, a new car, plus a top-paying job at an Austin bank for Victoria. But all is not well at SoftCorp and its relationship with the IRS, where computer automation contracts with SoftCorp result in extraodinary amounts of money being funneled straight out of its coffers and into SoftCorp's accounts in the bank that Victoria is working at. From there it goes overseas to finance . . . well, I'm not going to steal the author's thunder.

Sounds familiar so far? Remember Mitch McDeere from Grisham's The Firm? Well, up to this point (just Chapter 1) it's just a well-written high-tech version of the legal thriller that made Grisham a household name. But then R.J. Pineiro takes the novel in a radically different direction, exposing the reader to a heck of a thriller ride smartly woven with artificial intelligence and virtual reality technology, but explained in terms that even a borderline computer illiterate like me can understand, and also learn.

When Ryan suspects that something is wrong and hooks up with FBI Special Agent Karen Frost, the action and suspense escalates to a level that even Grisham could not achieve with The Firm. One interesting aspect of the story is how Ryan gets out of jams using his computer skills rather than the brute-force methods of his FBI sidekick, Karen Frost, and her Desert Eagle .44 Magnum (the same one used by those evil agents in The Matrix).

I really want to give this fine tale more than five stars because it not only kept my attention through 400 pages, but it did so while also educating me in aspects of virtual reality and artificial intelligence that I had never really thought about much. The story also underlies just how sensitive our technology is to hackers and how much we stand to lose if not properly protected from such attacks.

Way to go, Pineiro. I'll be sure to look out for your future books. You've got a new fan.

Stanford graduates Michael and Victoria Ryan can testify that college is quite expensive as the couple realizes that they are buried in debt. Michael has offers from the who's who of the computer world. When the Austin, Texas based SoftCorp arranges an interview through the university with Michael, he is forced to attend due to Stanford rules. However, the electrical engineering Masters recipient has no plans to leave his home in Northern California, to join an unknown computer company. However, the SoftCorp CEO offers Michael a deal he cannot refuse that includes paying off his and his wife's debts and obtaining a job for his spouse at a nearby bank.

Not long after relocating, Michael realizes that SoftCorp, whose only client is the IRS, is pulling a major scam sending money out of the country. The FBI sees Michael as the first chink in the SoftCorp-IRS armor and recruits him to help them with their investigation. Michael does not realize the danger to himself, his wife, and the country from a conspiracy that reaches high up in the national hierarchy.

CONSPIRACY.COM is a powerful suspense thriller that combines the secrecy of the IRS with very current information technology. Though the story line would be expected to be a stretch, the plot works because the key players especially Michael and Victoria seem real. Anyone who enjoys a non-stop, action packed modern day thriller will want to read this excellent tale, whose only setback is the small sized print.

Harriet Klausner

I would say the novel is an utter piece of trash. The author apparently is also a Software Engineer, which does not explain the fairy tale VR stuff he weaves in this novel. I mean MSS-Ali, please give us a break, a 5 year old could have come up with a better name. Dude, Virtual Reality interfaces went out of style after Disclosure. Looks like this book was written in a bit of hurry, to get it to the press pronto. The Formula: a couple of Josn Grishams, rent Diclosure (the movie) and voila we have a book.

This book proves that a good writer can take a ridiculous idea and make it into a preposterously unbelievable story that grips you so completely that you stay up most of the night to finish it. IRS agents as heros. A computer database system that cannot possibly work. Evil guys that can watch everything you do on camera in every room in your house. Brilliant Stanford computer whizzes and brilliant banking mavens bamboozled by Cuban gang lords. Presidential candidates stealing billions upond billions. FBI agents that are corrupt and stoopid. Now who would believe all that?
The writer makes a huge number of gigantic stretches so entertaining that you might not crawl out of your chair to eat. Action packed conspiracy upon conspiracy thwarted by a blond female FBI agent and some people just out of college and buried in debt. Lots of major criminals and evil stuff gets a number of important people killed without hardly a policeman anywhere in Austin, Texas to mess things up.

Warning -- this review contains plot spoilers, so if you intend to read this piece of pulp, do not read the indicated two paragraphs.

It is fairly clear to me that this author had copies of "the firm" by John Grisham and "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson right beside him for various parts of this purported "thriller" as well as some derivative work from the realm of "V.I. Warshawski".

Thankfully, I checked this book out of the library, so I did not waste any hard-earned $$ or further line the pockets of this "author". The plot revolves around a brilliant young computer programmer who races thru undergrad, a masters, and apparently a PhD (although this is unclear) in near record time from Stanford. Despite this young man's intelligence, he lacks enough common sense to see that the offer he has received from the software firm recruiting him is clearly too good to be true (a'la "The Firm").

This brilliant young genious has developed a Virtual Reality simulation for surfing the internet and supporting private and public networks. This system revolves around the use of virtual "planets" with building like nodes of information from various sources (see "Snow Crash" for a better description). Using his nifty system he is able to penetrate the deep dark secret of the company he works for and determine the inner workings of, among others, the IRS.

******Spoiler Alert********

Add to this the proliferation of supporting characters so two-dimensional that they are virtually invisible when turned sideways. The uber-villan, a Cuban multibillionare who is secretly supporting the Castro regime in trying to score nukes from the Russkies for lots of cash funneled off from the IRS through a mechanism that is never made clear. The political hack senator who will sell his soul for the Oval Office. The righteous "rouge" FBI agent.

The only interesting thing is that the IRS gets to be the good guys and the bad guys at the same time.

*********End of Spoilers*******

Aside from the obvious dissapointment with the derivative nature of the story, I was also dissapointed in the ending which was clearly rushed and glossed over a lot of the details that may have redeemed this story a lot.

On the whole, I'd easily recommend either "The Firm" or "Snow Crash" over this novel.

This is my first Pineiro book and it will certainly not be my last one. I picked it up after reading the great reviews it has received and I have to add my own to this growing list.

Think of this book as The Firm meets The Matrix. You have excellent and sympathetic characters like Stanford computer whiz Mike Ryan and FBI Agent Karen Frost, the heroes going up against a ruthless Cuban-American billionaire who has puppets everywhere, including one senator he plans to put in the White House next year. The book does start like the Grisham tale but quickly departs from it in a roller-coaster ride that takes you both through the unexpected twists and turns in both the real and cyber worlds. While Mike Ryan surfs the Internet using virtual-reality hardware reminiscent of The Matrix to fight against a well-hidden but powerful criminal empire in America, Karen Frost carries out her own battles against formidable foes in the real world. Together they form an alliance that takes them through enough excitement and nail-biting scenes to keep you turning pages at a furious pace, until . . . well, I'm not going to say. To make it even more interesting, the IRS is involved in more ways that the reader might be led to believe by just reading the book jacket.

If you want to read a thriller that's impossible to put down, you want to read this one. In fact, buy two and give one to a friend.

What a terrific read. I devour thrillers of all kinds, legal, high-tech, military, medical, etc, and this one ranks among the best of Ludlum, DeMille, and Morrell. In the begininng the plot seemed all too familiar (The Firm), but it soon takes off in a different and very exciting direction. The hero, Mike Ryan, is a terrific and very sympathetic character, as is his wife, Victoria, and the FBI agent on the case, Karen Frost. Together they go up against a Cuban-American billionaire who is about to send his own puppet to the White House. There is plenty of action in both the real world as well as the cyber world, as Ryan surfs the Internet through Matrix-like virtual-reality hardware.

If you enjoy the kind of thriller that you just can't put down, with memorable characters and a twisting plot, you can't pass up this one.