Robin Burcell’s
latest novel, The Kill Order, comes right out of
the NSA scandal. Although written a year ago she delves into
the notion that a secret government agency will spy on friends
and foes via their computers. Known for writing about political
espionage and conspiracy theories she has written an action
adventure story involving a cat/mouse game with computer technology.
This book brings back all the characters from the ATLAS series
including Sydney Fitzpatrick and Zachary Griffin. Sydney still
works for the FBI as a forensic artist but finds herself being
outsourced to the ATLAS crew, a US intelligence agency that
is off the charts and works clandestinely outside and inside
the US.
In this book, Burcell explores the personal relationship between
FBI Agent Fitzpatrick and ATLAS operative, Griffin, focusing
on how a couple can overcome guilt, confusion, and the hurt
based upon untruths. The Kill Order, the fourth book
in the series, has Sydney changing from a rule follower, someone
who is black and white, to someone who believes in grey areas.
Being heavily influenced by the ATLAS group she bends the
rule for the greater good, emphasis on the good.
This book continues where the last book left off so it is
better to read the series in order. The plot has Sydney being
hunted along with Piper Lawrence since both accidentally came
upon a very important code. Having eidetic memory Piper remembers
strings of random numbers she has seen, which includes the
code. Sydney, on the other hand, recovered it while investigating
her father’s murder. This code, known as the Devil’s
Key, is invaluable and must never fall into the wrong hands.
Thus, the President issued a “kill order,” for
anyone who has knowledge of it. The cat and mouse game begins
as both good guys and bad search to get their hands on the
“Devil’s Key,” because it could seemingly
devastate America’s entire infrastructure.
Burcell noted, “I wanted to show in this book how we
have lost our privacy. We see in my current storyline how
we carry around in our pockets mini computers with our cell
phones. People know where we are and what we are saying. What
is scary is that there are countries like China that make
our phones which means control goes out the window. I hope
my book encourages readers to question what is currently happening
with technology. As far as the NSA let’s remember that
our government is made up of individuals. What I did with
this book is use “the Devil’s Key,” based
on software that interconnects things. Allegedly, the person
who built this software put in a “back door” at
the request of the US government so they could spy on people
using it. After it was discovered, by I believe Canada, people
started to get killed.”
The Kill Order is a gripping account of what could
happen in today’s technology age. It is a very suspenseful
novel whose action begins from page one and never lets up.
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