Humphrey Hawksley ,The History Book

The History Book

Warner, Aug 2007, $24.95

ISBN: 9780446527446

Homeland Security freed convicted hacker Catherine "Kat" Polinski on the stipulation that she works for the agency as they protect Americans by domestic voyeurism and surveillance on anyone inside the fifty states and neighboring countries. Her latest assignment proves lethal when she breaks into the Kazakhstan Embassy in DC seeking useful information, but finds a horde of corpses instead; she barely escapes having to kill two assassins.

When she gets home, she finds a strange message from her sister Suzy, who lives in England. Soon afterward Kat learns that someone assassinated Suzie just outside of London. Although warned by her controller to not leave the country, Kat travels to England to learn who and why Suzy was murdered by an apparent sniper even as her handlers and British security seek to stop her.

The technological security gadgets will fascinate readers almost as much as the exhilarating story line starring a dynamite heroine whose caper is personal. Kat is fabulous as she proves London still swings even with security so tight a dime could not slip through a crack, but a Kat can. Fans will root for the heroine as she goes from one dangerous caper to another in this delightful action-packed thriller that reminds the audience the cost in a Neo-Hoover surveillance world where everyone is always considered a terrorist.

Harriet Klausner