The Devil's Code

John Sandford

Kidd is an artist, computer genius, and crook. He claims to specialize in industrial espionage and computer hacking. His art doesn't support him in the style he prefers to live. He returns from a fishing trip to Alaska to discover his friend Jack Morrison is dead. Jack was killed in a shoot out in Dallas at a company where Jack was trying to break in. Except he wasn't - breaking into the building, that is.

Also, Kidd finds he is named as a superhacker in an elite group, Firewall, that is trying to sabotage the government. Kidd knows he's not part of Firewall, and doesn't know what the group is or what it is doing. He starts pulling in his contacts. He wants to know what is happening and his involvement before the government uncovers him and arrests him. He may not be part of Firewall, but he has done enough other felonies he could go to jail the rest of his life.

Jack's sister, Laine, contacts Kidd. She knows Jack didn't try to break into that building. She wants to know the truth. She convinces him to let her help. Kidd gets on the phone with his main source of information, the anonymous Bobby. LuEllen, his thief friend from Minnesota, comes along with him as Kidd untangles the weave of mystery.

This book gave me the chills. I know computer espionage happens. I know unscrupulous people know how to make the chip-driven systems and machines work illegally as well as legally. Do I want to know how the systems are gotten around? This novel shows how someone with the right knowledge can work at circumvention. Not everything is easy, and at times traps are tripped. Yet...

I recommend this book; I thought it was good. It kept my attention all the way through, and I have a grudging like for the protagonist. Despite the fact he was defending himself, Kidd is still a crook and a "bad guy". He brings down a worse "bad guy", someone with more evil and greed. This is the third book featuring Kidd Artist, although the first I have read.

Notice: Suggestive dialogue or situations

The Fool's Run
The Empress File
The Devil's Code
The Hanged Man's Song