Killer.App [Mass Market Paperback]

Barbara D'Amato (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 1997

SJR Computer Systems is the largest, most powerful corporation of its kind. With secret tentacles that reach into all kinds of business, political, and government institutions, its power is mammoth. To Chicago cop Suze Figueroa, cyberspy is not in her job description - until a mysterious accident lands her computer engineer sister in a coma. Did her sister's "accident" have anything to do with the secret database at SJR Systems that she had just uncovered? With help from her beat partner, Suze investigates SJR and uncovers a greedy computer genius's horrific plan to commandeer the world's power centers. And he has the means to do it, using a method so insidious that even the presidency of the United States is vulnerable. Targeted by a network of on-line henchmen, as well as ruthless flesh-and-blood assassins, Suze must race to save her sister, herself - and the President of the United States.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Computer-phobia strikes again in this competent but very busy, and not very imaginative, conspiracy yarn from the author of the Cat Marasala mystery series (Hard Case, 1994, etc.). Just like Sandra Bullock in the hit film The Net, Chicago computer programmer Sheryl Birch stumbles onto a secret program with evil implications. The program, made by SJR DataSystems, allows, among other possibilities, entry into the data records of Chicago hospitals?access that may have been used to kill someone. Before she can act on her discovery, Sheryl is run off a highway and plunged into a coma. Her feisty Chicago cop sister, Suze, pulls together a small band of trusted cops to take on SJR's diabolical honcho, Dean Utley. He, it turns out, has world-class ambitions, including taking over the Oval Office?via assassination. D'Amato knows her computers, and offers enough bit-cracking, e-mailing, browsing and downloading to please the most demanding armchair hacker. This isn't her strongest work, however. It suffers from a relatively simplistic plot and characters who aren't nearly as interesting as the electronic bits they fling at each other through cyberspace.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Next to Dean Utley, the computer honcho in D'Amato's police procedural, Microsoft's Bill Gates seems laid back: Gates only tries to dominate his products' markets; Utley aims to control the world. With the customized systems Utley has installed at credit card companies, hospitals, and the Chicago Police Department, his band of amoral hackers and thugs could succeed. D'Amato, author of the Cat Marsala mysteries, starts slowly here, taking time to introduce characters coming at the case from several directions: Jesus Delgado, investigating a missing policeman's corpse that popped up in the Chicago River; Max Brown, CPD computer whiz; Susanna Figueroa and partner Norm Bennis, drawn in when Figueroa's sister, a computer engineer, spots strange programs and ends up in a coma. Once D'Amato hooks us, however, she offers a pulse-pounding roller-coaster ride as the tiny, isolated team of cops takes on the deadly cyberconspirators. Vivid and involving; well worth suspending disbelief. Mary Carroll --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books (March 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812553918
• ISBN-13: 978-0812553918
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,802,757 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars engrossing and well-crafted, June 4, 1998

By 

Constant Reader "SF" (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Killer.App (Mass Market Paperback)

I usually read while working out on a stationary bike for 30 minutes. Anything to take my mind off exercise ... looking down while reading Killer.app, I saw that I had been at it for 50 minutes. I bought another copy for a friend, who went takeoff - landing on the redeye from LA to NY completely immersed. Excellent read.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great read for mystery readers!, May 11, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Killer.App (Mass Market Paperback)

This is a great read -- a fresh crime, and what diabolical minds at work. It makes the world of computers and the Internet very scary, and you'll think twice every time you use your credit cards from now on. Who is looking over your shoulder? It doesn't do anything for one's confidence in hospitals either. You don't want to put it down, but you don't want to finish it. The last two chapters are pretty bad -- perhaps the author was tired -- but I can't blame her. She served up quite a story earlier

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Most frightening book I've read in years., December 6, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: KILLER.app (series: Figueroa & Bennis #1) (Hardcover)

Once you accept the absurd premise that a major corporation is run by brilliant amorals, this book takes you into a frightening world. I put a book down when the tension gets too great. Most books rate 2-3 put downs; this one I had to put down every 3-5 pages because the world it describes is so dangerous to our heroes. When the villains can alter any event, it makes it very difficult to see how the good guys can protect themselves. If anything, the ending is weak because the good guys succeed relatively easily. Tom Apple San Jos