Spy Game (Five Star Expressions) [Hardcover]

Sue Swift (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1594146586 | ISBN-13: 978-1594146589 | Publication Date: February 2008

Publisher's Weekly review: Cyber geek meets seductive spy girl in this feverish Silicon Valley thriller from Swift (Triangle). Half-French, half-Algerian Ani Sharif, whose parents were murdered by extremists 10 years earlier when she was at a private girls' school in Algiers, has joined the United States Security Agency. On her first undercover assignment, Ani must uncover who's selling Defense Department cyber secrets to foreign governments. The prime suspect is Richard "Baby Rex" Rexford of Rexford.com, where Ani lands a programming job by playing the part of an opportunistic cyber pirate. Her mission is to hack into Richard's home laptop and locate incriminating evidence. What she doesn't bargain for is falling in love with this possible traitor. Swift delivers a fast-paced romantic romp as the spy games escalate into erotic games, testing Ani's faith in her ability to separate business from pleasure. Swift's brisk narrative offers an unusual blend of romantic suspense and cyber crime. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cyber geek meets seductive spy girl in this feverish Silicon Valley thriller from Swift (Triangle). Half-French, half-Algerian Ani Sharif, whose parents were murdered by extremists 10 years earlier when she was at a private girls' school in Algiers, has joined the United States Security Agency. On her first undercover assignment, Ani must uncover who's selling Defense Department cyber secrets to foreign governments. The prime suspect is Richard Baby Rex Rexford of Rexford.com, where Ani lands a programming job by playing the part of an opportunistic cyber pirate. Her mission is to hack into Richard's home laptop and locate incriminating evidence. What she doesn't bargain for is falling in love with this possible traitor. Swift delivers a fast-paced romantic romp as the spy games escalate into erotic games, testing Ani's faith in her ability to separate business from pleasure. Swift's brisk narrative offers an unusual blend of romantic suspense and cyber crime. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 277 pages
• Publisher: Five Star (February 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594146586
• ISBN-13: 978-1594146589
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,227,890 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Best-selling, award-winning author Sue Swift has written over a dozen novels, plus several short stories and non-fiction articles. She writes in numerous subgenres including paranormal, historical and contemporary comedy.

She has earned a 2d degree black belt in kenpo karate and used to play amateur ice hockey in a rec league. A former trial attorney, her hobbies are yoga and world travel; she has lived and worked in places as diverse as Luoyang, China and London, England. She's working as an editor in northern California and writing her sixteenth manuscript.

Her current blog is at http://www.fearlessfastpacedfiction.com and her website is http://www.sue-swift.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars entertaining espionage romantic suspense, February 21, 2008

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Spy Game (Five Star Expressions) (Hardcover)

A decade ago the parents of half-French, half-Algerian Ani Sharif were murdered while attended a girls' school in Algiers. Wanting to enact vengeance, but not knowing how, she obtains undercover work for the United States Security Agency, who knows her background makes her perfect for the SPY GAME.

Ani is initially assigned low skill non classified office work until now. Her first field assignment is to learn who is betraying the country by selling Department of Defense cyber secrets to foreign agents. Her superiors have firm evidence that the traitor works for defense contractor Rexford Inc. in Silicon Valley with the prime suspect being Richard "Baby Rex" Rexford. Ani obtains a programming position at Rexford and begins her efforts to hack into Richard's laptop where the proof is expected to be found. However, she finds much more as she falls in love with the man she believes is committing seditious and potentially deadly acts against the United States.

This is an entertaining espionage romantic suspense in which the cyber crime brings freshness to the plot. Ani is terrific as she wonders whether she could have fallen in love with a traitor as all the evidence points towards Richard as the seller of DOD secrets. Swift pacing and starring two strong lead characters, SPY GAME is a fun enjoyable thriller.

Harriet Klausner

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Coming to a garage sale soon..., August 25, 2008

By 

Tracy Vest (Northern California) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Spy Game (Five Star Expressions) (Hardcover)

Raised by two agents of the US Security Agency after her parents are murdered, Ani Sharif enters into the family business alongside her "sister" Linda. Usually pulling desk duty at the USSA, Ani is on her first undercover assignment - to infiltrate a defense contractor that has a mole leaking secrets. She is to gain the trust of CEO Richard Rexford who is not too happy that she has not only hacked into his highly encrypted firewalls, but has managed to purchase every dot com derivative of his company's name. But soon the big bad CEO is smitten with the hacker. Will Ani lose the man she loves when she reveals her true identity?

Writer Swift knows her geography and takes readers on a journey of San Francisco and Silicon Valley. But the promising story is stalled by cliched dialog, too many sub plots, and a predictable culprit that readers will see coming from the start. The spicy love scenes also seem a little out of place at times, and Ani's romantic history is typical of older romances novels - either heroines are virgins or born again after having a single unsatisfactory experience. I liked the idea of the story, but the revelation of the culprit, though obvious, was a little anti-climatic - it even takes place off the pages of the story and is told in narrative.

© Tracy Vest, August 2008

7 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast and Fun, September 10, 2008

By 

Deb Stover (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spy Game (Five Star Expressions) (Hardcover)

SPY GAME is a fast, fun romantic suspense that -- I hope -- will be one of many more from Sue Swift. I read this book in one gulp and couldn't put it down. Brava, Ms. Swift! Encore!