Rating: 
Summary: The Blue Nowhere
Review: Deaver's novel, The Blue Nowhere explores the modern sociological experience of the impact of computers and the internet on modern society. It is a novel of intrigue, suspense, and mystery in which murders are occurring that can be tied to computer intrusions and the use of social engineering by the master hacker, Phate. Detective Andy Anderson of the California computer crimes division, while an expert computer user himself, realizes he is in over his head with this case and decides to get another master hacker, Wyatt Gillette, temporarily released from prison to help him track down and capture Phate. Wyatt has been banned from any computer usage while in prison and works out a deal with Andy Anderson that should he be successful in capturing Phate he be allowed a computer in prison, one not connected to the internet.
As the book continues the plot takes many twists and turns but the murders continue and Phate begins to prey upon those that track him. It is a game to him. He has developed a program named Trapdoor which infiltrates the computers of his victims and steals their personal information which he then uses to socially engineer his victims. Social engineering is a common tool used by hackers to gain access to systems by supplying enough personal information about a person to make the person being engineered think that the hacker is who he is trying to portray. Social engineering can also be used against the weaknesses of the target victim and identity theft, a big problem in the information age, is a part of social engineering.
Deaver continues to unravel his story allowing us first to think that one of the investigators is working with Phate, and finally we learn that Wyatt knew Phate from being part of an online hacker group with him. Wyatt had just never seen him in person. Phate lures Andy Anderson to a place known as hacker's knoll and kills him. Frank Bishop ends up working with Wyatt to continue the case. There are other murders and even a robbery. After many twists and turns, in which we are given quite a bit of information on computer hacking, Frank Bishop and Wyatt find Phate-Jon Patrick Holloway-packing up his equipment to make a getaway. There is a struggle and Frank is knocked unconscious by Phate. Wyatt and Phate struggle and one of the investigators, Patricia Nolan, who followed them, barges in and stuns both, Wyatt and Phate with a stun gun. We find out that Patricia is not who she portrayed herself as and that she has ulterior motives. She wants the source code to Trapdoor. She ends up torturing Phate and gets the code from him, and then she kills him by lethal injection before turning on Wyatt. Wyatt is rescued by another investigator, Tony Mott, but Patricia Nolan escapes and we never learn her true identity. Frank finds Phate's computer and we are subjected to a very exciting ending as the story is wrapped up.
This story offers some very interesting lessons that affect us today. Our identities, or as C.W. Mills defines as our personal biographies, are very important to our sociological well-being. However, since the age of computers, now known as the information age, never before has it been so easy to steal personal identities and when you consider this issue, it can be frightening how easily your own identity can be turned or used against you. Your own identity can be used by others to cause you great personal damage and even harm. We see this in some television ads these days, but most of us probably think that it won't happen to us, maybe we should think again as this is going to be a continuing problem plaguing our modern society.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring? Really?
Review: I am a normal person in a normal world. I grew up before computers were in every home and class room. I found the book very tense. I could feel my heart rate increase numerous times. Had a hard time putting it down. Freaked me out, that I didn't get on the internet for over a month. Logically I know the odds of something like that really happening is very low...but still...I guess people say there are tech/terms problems in the book. I suppose that would bother me also if I really understood what gigabytes really were. All I know is how to make software work to its fullest.
Rating: 
Summary: The blue bore...
Review: I found this I book a bit of a bore. I have read 4 of Deaver's other books, the three Lincoln Rhme novels, The Bone Collector, The Empty Chair and The Coffin Dancer as well as the The Devils Teardrop where Lincoln makes a guest appearance. I really like his Rhyme novels, I find them a rare twist on the forensic investigator genre, and I think Lincoln is a really unique and interesting character, but maybe if I was a forensic scientist myself I would react to those novel's as I did to The Blue Nowhere. This novel is about comupters, hacking, the Internet and is set in Silicon Valley and the greater Bay area. All of which I know more about than the average reader. a) I live in the Bay area. b) I work for a software company that builds software used to build applications many of which are internet based. c) While not a hacker by any stretch of the imagination I am a programmer by profession. Deaver took great literary license in his terminology, description, and attitude towards computers. To the laymen I suppose this would all be accepted, however it grated against me as exaggerated untruth. I couldn't get past the ever present phony context to even appreciate the story of the mystery. I plowed through it with not much anticipation or excitement. The big revelation at the end was very disappointing, so I quickly finished and got on to the next novel.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: I'm not a big fan of this writer but this book is a page turner. One surprise after the other, and I think you'll find the ending quite interesting as well. Can't say much about this book without giving away the plot so read it for yourself. A must!
Rating:
Summary: Go back to writing Lincoln Rhyme novels, Mr Deaver.....
Review: It's definitely what you do best.
As with "The Devil's Teardrop", there are incredible gaps in the plot - and unlike "Teardrop", in some cases Deaver doesn't explain what happened during these gaps or refer back to them in any way.
But what he does cover in "The Blue Nowhere" is a rollicking good read nevertheless, not to mention frightening - and this book is definitely worth recommending.
Deaver does need to go back over his notes in "how to write a mystery novel", though - his Lincoln Rhyme novels are proof that he knows how to do it, but so far his non-Rhyme stories look like they were written by a completely different, completely amateurish person masquerading as Jeffery Deaver. Social engineering, perhaps?
Rating:
Summary: A (not-so)techno-thriller
Review: Jeffery Deaver actually has a pretty good plot and story buried deep down in this novel somewhere, but he spends so much time explaining the most basic of computer terms throughout the novel - and stopping mid-story to do it - that the reader loses focus. The book originally came out back in 2001, and even then most individuals did not need THAT much explanation about computers to get what was going on (was there really anyone out there in 2001 that had never heard of "the internet"?). If you know absolutely **nothing** about computers, you might enjoy this novel more but even the most basic computer knowledge turns this book into a bore at times. Readers shouldn't have to keep moaning to themselves "yes, I KNOW that, move on!" Even with that criticism, when the story did move it was captivating. A hacker sent to prison for cracking the wrong computer system is recruited to help the police catch another hacker that is using his skills to work his way into people's lives and kill them. Great story. If Deaver had focused more on that, he'd have had a real winner here.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping thriller
Review: So you thought that computer hacking was just a bunch of computer geeks having fun? No way, Jose! Get your fill of this superb psychological thriller where two hacking wizards battle their computer skills in a real life hunt for a serial murderer. Wyatt Gillette is serving a prison term for accessing government computer installations. Then the police spring him to help them hunt down Phate, a wizard hacker who can no longer distinguish between reality and virtual reality. But Phate and his accomplice, Shawn, are always one step ahead, even against the talents of Wyatt Gillette. Jeffery Deaver has written a gripping suspense novel, one that I read in a single sitting (which is something I don't often do). The action boots in right on page one, and stays on fast track through page 422 (leaving just a neat seven pages to tidy up at the end). If you enjoy being kept on the edge of your seat, 'The Blue Nowhere' is surely the book for you. So why only four stars? First, the lousy punctuation, which, in the opening chapters, kept drawing my attention away from the story (I got used to it eventually). Second, a confusion of characters. A little more early characterization or a slower introduction to the various participants would have been more appropriate. These aren't big issues and, if there had been a four-and-a-half button, I would have pressed it so, small criticisms aside, 'The Blue Nowhere' really is a good read and I recommend it highly.
Rating:
Summary: Fast and well-thought
Review: This book surprised me on many levels, and I start by saying that I highly recommend it. As a person who likes to savor books, I read this one in two evenings. After Speaking in Tongues, I was a little wary of getting excited about another Jeffery Deaver's book. But as a programmer, I decide to pick it up because it is about something I have an interest in. Wyatt Gillette, a convicted felon, and the California Computer Crimes Unit attempt to stop a man, and an unknown accomplice, who uses his computer for the ultimate evil: murder. Jeffery Deaver throws out a few curve balls to keep the reader guessing, but avoids the unbelievable twists that seem to be rampant in thrillers. Generally I find that hi-tech fictional works are usual laughable in their portrayal and explanations of the technologies involved. Along this line,I have long felt that Michael Crichton is one of the best authors in researching his topics. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that Mr. Deaver did a great job in his own; all-in-all, his events and explanations were realistic and they reflect his opinion that the reader is not stupid, without going so far as to be a textbook on the subject. It is a very fast moving book, and there are complaints that the characters are not deeply developed. I attribute this to two things. It would take away from the quick pace of the story, and furthermore it is unnecessary. You learn enough about Wyatt and Phate without needless filler. Don't get me wrong, there are a couple of spots where I crinkled my nose in disbelief, but it is a work of fiction and it is a very good one at that.
Rating:
Summary: The Blue Amazing
Review: This book was amazing. It took me just 3 days to read it and it felt like I was in the book. Deaver has made one of the best books that is related for the 2000 and on. It really shows you how dangerous the web can be. Also, it was very suspenseful, and you never knew when they would catch him.
Rating:
Summary: Boring? Really?
Review: This book was far from a bore. Having been raised with computers in my life - knowing just about enough about them to get by and do no damage to them - I didn't find the explanations at all patronising, rather helpful for the people out there who don't have a clue about computers. To be honest I didn't find that these explanations were blocking the plot and they do give some aspect of time. I was a true teenager when I first read this book and it is obviously aimed at us in general. Phate downloading whatever-they-ares in several minutes really meant nothing to me...only that he'd outsmarted them once again and got a lot more than they'd anticipated. I would recommend this book to anyone who was willing to dismis these so-called obvious mistakes - which a mind like mine would certainly miss, being educated in languages certainly doesn't make you aware of specialist terms.
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