Customer Reviews

Fatal Encryption (Alex Bellamy mystery)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Fatal Encryption is a corporate caper with plenty of twists and turns, and an assortment of appealing characters that will keep you guessing.

Debra Purdy-Kong's newest novel offers a well-plotted modern day mystery that is reminiscent of the classic whodunnits, and her amateur sleuth Alex Bellamy makes for an interesting, yet flawed, hero.

A great beach read!"

--Cheryl Kaye Tardif,
Author of Divine Intervention

Halloween--Port Moody, British Columbia: Unable to join the trick-or-treating fun due to the chicken pox, one young suburban girl is the sole witness to a costumed reveler responsible for brutal premeditated murder. Nearby, the wife of the victim's brother storms home from a party and finds the body. But why was he killed? What did he know?

Alex Bellamy a young computer geek in need of work takes a contract job to solve recent network and computer glitches at his girlfriend's company. He soon learns that the glitches are more than just pranks. In fact, all of the computers vital records are encrypted by an extortionist threatening to destroy all of the records or pay ten million dollars to save the company. Soon Bellamy is engulfed in a whirlwind of corporate greed and believes that not only is the company at risk but lives as well; the suburban murder and the young girls knowledge is the key to unlocking the conspirators' identity. In his zeal to debug the company's computer system and solve the murder, Bellamy finds his as well as his friends and families lives are in danger.

Debra Purdy Kong's book "Fatal Encryption" is an entertaining mystery full of back room corporate deals, family squabbles and power plays, secret affairs, and murder. I enjoyed this novel. Kong creates multiple plausible suspects throughout the story leaving the reader guessing all the way until the end. I was also surprised by how bold and brave Alex Bellamy was throughout the book. He frequently questioned potential suspects telling them how he believed they committed various crimes which if true would have put him in grave danger as in most situations he was alone with these potential killers.

Reminiscent of "Murder She Wrote", "Fatal Encryption" features an everyday guy with good observational and deductive skills who solves a crime. Kong has created an interested character and I look forward to the next Alex Bellamy mystery.

Fatal Encryption by Debra Purdy Kong opens with an intriguing Halloween night murder but never becomes the tense, high-stakes thriller that it wants to be. The story centers around Alex Bellamy, a depressing, 20ish IT guy with an annoying girlfriend who finds himself in the middle of a corporate murder mystery filled with weak characters that are unbelievably open and direct. The book's title and premise would lead one to believe that this will be an exciting cyber-thriller where the hero is chasing the villain through an electronic maze filled with active attacks, derfs, fishbowling, Trojan Horses, and dark-side hackers. But this is not the world where we go.

Instead Kong takes us into a rude world of bitter office politics populated by superficial characters with petty squabbles that distract from what could have been a sexy murder mystery with a cyber twist. The characters are introduced and developed through gossip and dialogue instead of action. Motivated almost entirely by jealousy and rejection, this dull cast of characters leaves us almost no one to root for - even the protagonist has few redeeming qualities - and we end up cheering against all of them. Alex is the stereotypical IT guru: rude, annoyed, condescending and bitter.

The strength of the book is definitely in its cyber-talk. It seemed to come alive whenever Alex described the intricacies of a cyber-attack and although Kong seems to be writing what she knows, the story hardly ever goes here. Instead it revolves around Alex's quest to catch the bad guys before the cops do. He seems to be living his life to please his family but except for an array of attractive young females we never really know what else he wants. What is he really trying to solve? What psychological hurdle is he trying to overcome?

He is not portrayed as a smart person. He is continuously unemployed, behind on his bills and decides to pay his partner out of his own salary. That's the act of an incredibly generous person or one who is completely thoughtless. The case is not pieced together by his cunning detective work but by the immature outbursts of the angry and jealous supporting characters, all of whom seem at one time to complain about "being treated like"...well, you know.

Kong is an ok writer but the storytelling needs work. The story takes too long to unfold and the resolution is less than satisfying. With characters that are almost indistinguishable, the book suffered from having too many of them. Written almost entirely in dialogue, the supporting prose and descriptions border on mundane. Phrases like, "dread slithered down Alex's back" do not conjure the emotional feeling they intend to. The climax has a few twists but no surprises as we can predict where Alex will end up.

Strengths: high-stakes, interesting premise

Opportunities: too many characters, too long, dull

Will appeal to: mystery readers, light readers

Mark McGinty is the author of "Elvis and the Blue Moon Conspiracy"

This is the second in Purdy Kong's Alex Bellamy mystery series. I always enjoy a well crafted, well written mystery novel and "Fatal Encryption" is one of them. Not only does it have a gripping plot and three dimensional characters, there is a well-woven subtext throughout. See if you can figure that out while you try to identify the killer.

This is the type of book that makes you long for the next in the series as you approach the end - a page turner with more depth than most.

I love books, you give me a good horror novel, or mystery and I am putty in your hands.

Recently, I became familar with a large group of independent authors on Amazon, and they are a classy bunch. As someone who hates mainstream books that change a couple of names and a title, I needed something fresh. I needed depth. Apparently, I needed Miss Kong.

While there are some minor things needed editing, it doesn't take away from the story, as a previous review suggested. On the contrary it brings a new vulnerability to the author that makes the read much more enchanting.

The book offers, a dark tale written with a drive for mystery. You are sucked in from the very first page and by the mid point your heart is pounding so hard in your chest you have to step away for a moment it really is that good.

In a world full of greed, and shady business, you will find this book hits very close to the home of someone you know.

Held hostage for ten million dollars - only Alex Bellamy can save the company from giving into the demands and going bankrupt. "Fatal Encryption" is the story of a sudden murder and its strange link to McKinley's department store in which Alex agreed to assist, believing that the murder and the ransom plot against the store's computer information are connected somehow. He must find the connection, the killer, and the extortionist or face unemployment, among other unpleasantness. A riveting mystery, "Fatal Encryption" is highly recommended for community library mystery collections.

Alex Bellamy, 28-year-old Chartered Accountant and computer geek who had been working as a temp, decides against his better judgment to accept a job as systems analyst for the family-owned McKinleys' Department Stores. Three successive men had left the position or been fired, and the stores' computers have been the target of pranks. Alex decides that virtual vandalism is a worthy objective for his talents and in fact, since normally he merely sets up systems and gets rid of viruses for his clients, thinks it might be an `intriguing challenge.' Little does he know.

No sooner does he accept the job than the family receives threats which escalate from huge ransom demands to promises of retaliation ranging from a fatal encryption of the entire computer system used by all stores in the chain [the main store plus 21 satellite stores], to the burning down of the main store. The stakes are raised when the brother of a man who had been fired from the store is murdered. Could the killer and the hacker be one and the same? The suspects are, among others, "a disgruntled systems analyst, an employer close to bankruptcy, and a controller who couldn't keep his mouth shut."

The book is all about family dysfunction, from the McKinleys themselves to Alex [who had always been made to feel like the family failure when he rejected joining the Bellamy family's successful hotel empire] and various others around whom the plot revolves. Some of the writing felt somewhat stilted, e.g., "Just as I feared. Either the culprit, or his accomplice, works among us." The plot points first to one suspect as the most likely, then to another, then to another, and so on. After a while this began to feel repetitious, and the book might have benefited from some judicious editing. But the suspense builds to an exciting conclusion.

Among other unknown-to-me facts I picked up from the novel were the distinction between a "hack" and a "cracker," the former being someone who just wants to learn, the latter someone who wants to harm, and the definition of `encryption," i.e., converting data into code which makes it inaccessible.

I'm not normally a reader of this genre but I found this book a real page-turner -- I read 259 pp in one evening!!! Kong has firm control of her story and the plot rolls out at a good pace.

In Fatal Encryption, the author brings together the old and the new. The book is a well thought out mystery that combines computer geeks and old fashioned detective work. The book is dialog heavy in the style of the mysteries in which the "Inspector" questions suspects and listens in on conversations. In Fatal Encryption it is not an inspector, but Alex, a computer specialist. When he gets caught up in a family business, he just can't help getting involved when someone connected to the business turns up dead.

There are quite a few characters to keep track of with the large family, their spouses, lovers, employees and friends, but then that makes for more suspects in the murder. The characters are likeable especially Alex and his friend Tristan, the single dad trying to take care of his baby. The twists and turns will keep the reader guessing until the end. Fatal Encryption is the second Alex Bellamy mystery.

Fatal Encryption takes an average guy, Alex Bellamy, and plunks him into a cat-and-mouse game of computer crime and `murder most foul'. The author, Debra Purdy Kong, is a talented writer with a gift for creating detailed plots and settings. Her main character Alex Bellamy is a thoroughly likable and relatable guy, and was my favorite part of the book. His internal dialogue is very funny and he jumps off the page as a `real' character, he is someone the reader identifies with and easily roots for. Fatal Encryption is a very good mystery that will keep you guessing the whole way...

Rai Aren, co-author of Secret of the Sands