Books by author: Jeffery Deaver

This was recommended by my friend Chris. It's a thriller centered on a hacker who is temporarily released from prison to help the police stop another hacker who has gone on a killing spree. Chris is a seasoned programmer, and he liked the way that Deaver used appropriate jargon and technologies to describe the hackers' speech and actions.

Unfortunately, I disliked this book quite a lot. Deaver does use a lot of terms that are appropriate, and he often uses them appropriately. Some bits of hacking history are sprinkled thoughout, and they mostly corresponded with my limited knowledge of phreaking, etc. However, there are a bunch of errors that made me stop short — for example, misspelling "steganography" (twice) and writing 2600 megahertz when it should have been 2600 hertz.

Little technical mistakes are not a big problem, however. I was more frustrated with Deaver's prose. Many times in the novel, he begins sentences with "All hackers...". That's just bad writing. Nearly all of the characters are cartoonish, and the dialogue in general is corny. On the plus side, it's a very quick read.