John Law is a man full of secrets. People call him the Cryptographer, or the Codemaker. He is mysterious and charming, the world's first quadrillionaire, the inventor of an unbreakable code, of a new form of electronic money. As a man, he is admired and distrusted more than most. Tax inspector Anna Moore's talent is for getting clients to talk. She is good at what she does, one of the best. So when the Revenue assigns John Law as Anna's new client, her first task is to discover just what it is he's trying to hide...
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
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"'A supremely elegant and ambiguous thriller.' Sunday Times; 'A remarkable poetic imagination.' Independent on Sunday"
About the Author
Tobias Hill is a poet and novelist. Underground, his first novel, was published to great acclaim in 1999. A former poet in residence at London Zoo, Tobias Hill is a Visiting Fellow at Sussex University.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Cryptic,
This review is from: Cryptographer (Paperback)
The Cryptographer, by Tobias Hill, is not so much about a cryptographer as about a woman trying to understand the cryptographer. That the subject is a cryptographer is not particularly relevant, apart, perhaps, from his natural tendency to behave cryptically. All that matters is that he has power and money. He is money. In the Globe and Mail, cryptographer John Law is likened to Gatsby, but he is not quite so pathetic or tragic. The Guardian sums up the novel well, though I think it is mistaken in calling it "a thriller, however poetic and elliptical." The novel throbs with an underlying intrigue, but there is never a quickening of the pulse. According to the Telegraph, "The plot lacks depth or plausibility." I have to agree. Maud Newton didn't like it at all, but I think it has some merit. It is a character study. The book offers some insight into money, particularly into people who work with money without having any per se. Anna Moore, tax inspector. She carries on her side a balance of a kind of power, a sinister but moral intimidation, only The Revenue wields. Though the relationships between characters ring true and resolve as it seems they must, they are riddled with elisions. Hill uses a poet's trick of using empty spaces to give the content meaning, but I found myself working too hard to fill in the blanks. For example, while Anna has occasional obligatory dinners with her sister where they are as conversationally distant as strangers, there remains a "sisterliness" in their dialogue that I credit more to accident (and my ability to read between the lines) than to Hill's skill. Anna's relationship with John Law starts nicely, but evolves not plausibly at all. Their initial conversation, believably, is imbued with innuendo. They engage in a dance of flirtatious contact over months. That a year later this woman might construe this as love and pursue him to the ends of the earth is just silly. The prose is elegant, but the plot is a Prufrockian missed opportunity. http://magnificentoctopus.blogspot.com
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Premise,
By Stone Cold Nuts (Germany) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Cryptographer (Paperback)
Hard to believe that I just read a romance novel, but this one had a title and storyline that grabbed my attention. The girl Anna falls for a wealthy (and married) cryptologist whose children and work prove far more important than the money he's earned. Ultimately, the cryptographer must make a sacrafice and Anna must make a decision on whether she can truly trust the man she admires. The story is suspenseful and told in smooth and rapid style that had me finishing the book in one sitting aboard plane from Amsterdam to Capetown.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Great premise but I couldn't get into it,
By
This review is from: Cryptographer (Paperback)
This book had an interesting cover image (which seems to bear no relation to the story and which seems to not be on the US edition that I'm reviewing here) and some of the information on the back looked promising, so I gave it a go. I probably shouldn't have bothered as it was not the book for me.
Anna Moore works for the Inland Revenue and her job is to inspect some of the bigger clients. John Law is the `big client' of big clients - it turns out he's the richest man in the world as he invented a software form of currency - Soft Gold - which has eventually replaced real currency. Anna discovers that Law has been siphoning off some money into an account for his son which has not been taxed; she confronts him and he pays up. But for some reason she finds herself unable to let go and she continues to study him and his family, eventually uncovering the fact that Law and his son are terrified that the supposedly unbreakable code in Soft Gold has a security flaw. Eventually it's hacked, Law has to go into hiding, Anna finds him and then goes home again. And the book ends. It's a well-written book if you like those written in the present tense (and I don't!) and if you like the sort of conversations between characters which mean you haven't got a clue what's going on. It's meant to be a love story but the two `lovers' hardly meet and when they do they seem to speak in riddles. Who knows why Law likes her - I suppose his power and money might be an attraction to her, but it's not very clear. The ending disappointed me as it just seemed to fizzle out. I expect some people would find this book brilliant but it just didn't work for me.
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