Customer Reviews

Foolproof

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

 

 

Brenda Grant and Daniel Henderson worked together at CGI's corporate security offices in the World Trade Center; they barely escaped dying in the terrorist attacks of 911. Using the money they inherited, they have built DB Security. Companies hire them to ensure their internet systems are foolproof, i.e., no one can hack into them. Secretly, they monitor cyberspace and alert authorities of potential terrorist activity.

Allen Cooper of the National Security Analysis Agency (NSAA) hires DB Security to determine if a vote tallying program is foolproof. The creator of the program, Sarah Swettenham, a computer engineer, is thrown beneath a bus. Bombs begin exploding at DB Security offices located throughout the world. Brenda and Daniel's lives are jeopardized upon learning a terrorist organization wishes to sabotage America's upcoming presidential election. Who is the evil man who controls this organization and what does he hope to gain?

"Foolproof" is a provocative political thriller that is seamlessly written by three bestselling mystery authors, Barbara D'Amato, Jeanne M. Dams and Mark Zubro. The plot moves quickly and fluidly with a single writing style. One author's contribution was indistinguishable from another. They labored together with one mindset and that was to terrorize the reader with the possibility that voting polls are not foolproof. Our elections can be rigged!

The novel's main characters, Brenda Grant and Daniel Henderson, are well developed and likeable. Both are very strong, mentally and physically. They have extensive training to detect terrorist activity via the internet and to physically defend themselves against terrorists who target them. For example, Daniel must wear many disguises and engage in hand-to-hand combat as he literally fights his way from Cairo to Istanbul. He is homosexual but his actions are anything but effeminate; he compares himself to James Bond but I thought of him more as a computer toting Rambo. He is forced to kill many terrorists.

Brenda provides most of the romance in "Foolproof." She lost her fiancé when the World Trade Center collapsed. Ever since then, she's been afraid to commit herself. Now, she has met the handsome, debonair Allen Cooper who has given her company millions of dollars worth of business. Afraid of falling in love with him, she must investigate whether he is "foolproof." Could the modern day Romeo be too good to be true?

This political thriller kept me up late at night. Each chapter was a countdown to the election. I was eager to learn who would become the next president of the United States. While reading the last few chapters, I felt the tension and stress of watching the returns of an actual election. The outcome was rather shocking. Millions of viewers witnessed a debacle that would guarantee this election became the most infamous in our country's history.

"Foolproof" is excellent literature and highly recommended. Chiefly a political thriller, it has strong elements of action adventure, mystery and romance. After my careful review and analysis of "Foolproof," I find it quite foolproof.


Joseph B. Hoyos

The only real addition I have to the other reviews is the impact the first chapter had on me. Frankly I was in tears. I highly recommend this book to all readers.

This thriller about how to steal a presidential election using electronic voting machines and altered software grabs you right at the beginning and won't let you go. The attitudes and actions of politicians and reporters are familiar to all of us who have watched election results in recent years and have wondered what was really going on behind the scenes.

The characters are believable and engaging, and the writing is especially impressive when you consider that three authors with very different writing styles (who all live in different cities!) worked together to create this novel. I'd really like to know more about how they did it.

Masterful, seamless, and very, very plausible.

Sarah Wisseman, author of the Lisa Donahue archaeological mysteries

During the 9/11 assaults on the Twin Towers, Brenda Grant and Daniel Henderson, who worked in the World Trade Center, were in the Brew-Ha-Ha coffee shop. Their contemporaries at a software firm including Brenda's fiancé Jeremy die in the terrorist attack.

As the 2008 presidential election winds down, in Manhattan someone pushes thirtyish computer engineer Sarah Swettenham into traffic. Swettenham was to meet with Grant who along with Henderson opened up AllTech, a software security firm. When Grant learns Swettenham's computers are missing, she concludes an assailant deliberately killed her and stole her computers. National Security Agency's Allen Cooper already hired them to look into polling machine fraud; now their two inquiries converge in Cairo and DC.

This is an exciting over the top of the Washington Monument, the Pyramids and football nation as the conspiracy tied to elections never quite gets grounded. Still this is a fun tale that uses real American election dirty tactics and fraud (thankfully ignoring the phony issue of an individual at the poll voting as someone else) committed by both parties as the base for an enjoyable steal the presidential election conspiracy thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Of the previous reviews I think the only one that is honest and accurate is the one about the prompt delivery. Fortunately I checked this book out from the library, so didn't waste money on it.

Not only is the quality of the writing poor, the authors are clueless about computers, security, and probably terrorism and voting machines. I stopped reading around page 80, so don't really know how they dealt with voting machines.

For an example of what I mean by clueless, search the Look Inside feature for FTP. The hit is near the bottom of page 56. The two main characters, who are theoretically brilliant programmers and security experts, are discussing the platform of a web server they have been asked to hack. The possibilities they come up with are FTP and telenet, which they say preceded Windows and ran on UNIX. In reality, the word platform typically refers to the hardware or the operating system, such as Windows or UNIX. FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and telnet are both network protocols and client server applications. It is true that you could use FTP or telnet to gain access to a computer and then do things to compromise it, but they are not platforms.

When all their remote hacking skills can't get them past the firewall, Daniel decides to go to Atlanta and do a physical break in (search for slouched and go to page 71). After determining that the computer room uses a key card entry system, and has a guard stationed near it, and without doing any research to determine who does the cleaning or when it is normally done, he buys a a mop and bucket and shows up at the door at 10:15 at night and tells the guard he is a replacement for the usual cleaning person and has forgotten his key card. The guard just lets him in. Once inside he locates a mainframe computer, removes a cable from the back, plugs in his handy keylogger that is the same color as the cable, then goes to sleep until just before the first employee comes in the next morning. He stands around while this guy logs in, then accidentally knocks the power plug out while sweeping under the desk that had the mainframe on it, and in the ensuing confusion retrieves his keylogger and leaves.

Perhaps the above seems reasonable to readers who don't use computers and have never tried to break into a secure building, but it really isn't. It is nonsense. If someone wants to write a book about technology and security they should at least read a few other books about technology security first to see how they work. I really enjoy a good book that digs into these topics in a realistic way. This book is trash and you really shouldn't waste your money on it. But if you do, I'm sure Amazon will deliver it promptly.

This was no muss no fuss... I ordered it. It arrived a few days later, as it would from any major merchant. Thanks for delivering.