Synopsis
FBI Special Agent Jay Fletcher is very good at what she does. An agency hacker, Jay can use computers to find out anything about anybody, but she doesn't always go through the proper channels. When Jay blows a murder case by obtaining evidence before she gets a warrant, she's reassigned to Santa Fe. Missing the thrill of her old assignment in Washington, she practices using her computer tracking system, and discovers an ongoing investigation into Santa Fe's own serial killer. St. Martin's Press.
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From Publishers Weekly
Cyberspace serves as a clubhouse for serial killers in this lively, if far-fetched, debut thriller centered on an FBI computer analyst who becomes a deadly vigilante. Special Agent Janet Louise ("Jay") Fletcher has developed a program called C-Bix that crunches huge amounts of personal data to identify likely violent criminals. Despite the program's effectiveness, however, Jay blows a big serial-murder case by accessing airline records without authorization. Frustrated and disgraced, she is sent on "detached duty" to Santa Fe to help catch an arsonist. There, in her spare time, she uses her expertise to solve a local serial killing. But since her evidence is inadmissible in court, she confronts the killer and acts as judge, jury and executioner?in the process discovering a computer bulletin board where the killer had fraternized with other murderers. Jay decides to track down and slay them all, including the board's creator, the dangerous Iceman, who has eluded authorities while actively killing since the 1960s. Meanwhile, the FBI wants to stop both their rogue agent and her prey. Jay's metamorphosis from a committed agent to a renegade getting sexual thrills from vigilante murder doesn't quite wash. Still, Holt is a savvy writer?when she's introduced, Jay is fantasizing that she's Clarice Starling, heroine of The Silence of the Lambs?and the figure of Iceman is compelling, the depiction of the Internet appropriately creepy. With suspense generated through the unraveling of puzzles and the dynamic of the chase, this is an above-average cat-and-mouser that delivers some virtual chills. Major ad/promo; Literary Guild, Mystery Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternates; audio rights sold to Dove.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
FBI special agent Jay Fletcher has made a serious mistake: in tracking down a serial killer, she has violated federal law by trolling in various databases via the Internet without a warrant. The charges are dropped against the killer, and Fletcher finds herself assigned to assist a local arson investigator in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This slows her down only briefly, as she soon finds herself using the same electronic investigative tactics to identify a killer in Albuquerque. This time, rather than going through the formalities of a trial, she simply executes the killer herself. And thus a new angel of vigilantism is born. Tapping a previously suppressed reservoir of hate and revenge, she applies her computer skills to hack a vicious online role-playing game that masks an electronic bulletin board for serial killers, several of whom she eliminates. Holt has written a suspenseful, violent novel about this rogue cop who metes out her own brand of justice and the other cops who let her get away with it. It's almost fun, if you don't think too closely about what you're enjoying. George Needham
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