13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A corporate caper with plenty of twists and turns, June 24, 2008
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
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Statisfying Murder Mystery!, December 14, 2008
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.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Dull, June 9, 2009
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"
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