June 21, 2009

Review: Deadly Exchange by Geoffrey M. Gluckman



World-renowned motivational speaker Jennifer Chance is the face of Lectures and More, Inc. For five years she’s been the protégé of Ulrich Rogers and has brought the company the success it’s been craving but behind the scenes Rogers and his co-conspirator, Dr. Jones, are up to something more sinister.

Of late, Jennifer has grown more and more weary of the speeches she’s been making and yearns to take a much needed break from work. After a speech one night in San Diego she meets Frank. A tentative friendship grows between the two based on a strange connection they both feel towards each other. Frank is a retired government operative who is finally ready to move on after losing the love of his life five years ago when he meets Jennifer.

As Jennifer makes plans to spend her sabbatical from Lectures and More, Inc. with Frank, it becomes clear that something is not right within the company and the pair work closely with a select group to uncover the horrifying truth. Lectures and More, Inc is looking at more than just motivating the masses. Their goal is total mind control using radio frequency identification devices (RFID).

One word…CREEPY. Ok one more word… PLAUSIBLE. Yikes. You’ve all seen them. Those annoying little plastic tags that come on most electronic devices, DVD and CDs. That’s an RFID tag that stores use to track inventory from the warehouse through the purchase. But they can do a whole lot more. Just look at all the uses from the Wiki page and tell me this doesn’t freak you out just a little.

Aside from the creep factor, Gluckman put together a great thriller. The book starts in a little awkward in two ways. First, some conversations between characters seemed a bit forced. It didn’t flow very well and initially that was a bit of a turn off until the action picked up and the interactions made sense. Second, with so many players in the mix it was hard to remember who was who but once I got them straight the pages flew by a lot quicker. I found this an enjoyable thriller mostly based on the plausibility of the plot. Big Brother is out there!

1 comments :

CherylS22 said...

Hi! Monie,
This looks like a book right up my alley! My husband has been obsessed with the RFID technology & I'm sure he'd enjoy this book as well.
Thanks!
megalon22[at]yahoo[dot]com