Product Description

When the NSA's invincible code-breaking machine encounters a mysterious code it cannot break, the agency calls its head cryptographer, Susan Fletcher, a brilliant and beautiful mathematician. What she uncovers sends shock waves through the corridors of power. The NSA is being held hostage...not by guns or bombs, but by a code so ingeniously complex that if released it would cripple U.S. intelligence. Caught in an accelerating tempest of secrecy and lies, Susan Fletcher battles to save the agency she believes in. Betrayed on all sides, she finds herself fighting not only for her country but also for her life, and in the end, for the life of the man she loves.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #923 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-05
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

THE TIMES
'engaged me instantly, the reader, Bruce Sabbath, keeps up a cracking pace as the mystery deepens and disaster follows disaster.'

Synopsis
When the NSA's invincible code-breaking machine - encounters a mysterious code it cannot break, the agency calls in its head cryptographer, Susan Fletcher, a brilliant and beautiful mathematician. What she uncovers sends shock waves through the corridors of power. The NSA is being held hostage...not by guns or bombs, but by a code so ingeniously complex that if released it will cripple U.S. intelligence.

From the Inside Flap
Before the phenomenal runaway bestseller The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown set his razor-sharp research and storytelling skills to work on the most powerful intelligence organization on earth - the National Security Agency (NSA), an ultra-secret, multibillion-dollar agency many times more powerful than the CIA.

When the NSA's invincible code-breaking machine encounters a mysterious code it cannot break, the agency calls its head cryptographer, Susan Fletcher, a brilliant and beautiful mathematician. What she uncovers sends shock waves through the corridors of power. The NSA is being held hostage...not by guns or bombs, but by a code so ingeniously complex that if released it would cripple US intelligence.

Caught in an accelerating tempest of secrecy and lies, Susan Fletcher battles to save the agency she believes in. Betrayed on all sides, she finds herself fighting not only for her country but for her life, and, in the end, for the life of the man she loves.

From the underground hallways of power to the skyscrapers of Tokyo to the towering cathedrals of Spain, a desperate race unfolds. It is a battle for survival - a crucial bid to destroy a creation of inconceivable genius...an impregnable code-writing formula that threatens to obliterate the post-cold war balance of power. For ever.

Customer Reviews

Cryptography held hostage by unbreakable code.
Digital Fortress

This is Dan Brown's first novel and sets the framework for his mature works, Da Vinci Code etc.

One Saturday brilliant head code breaker Susan Fletcher is called in to work at America's ultimate security code breaking establishment by legendary boss Strathmore. She discovers their top secret three million processor 120 foot high super computer had been stuck for fifteens hours trying to break a code.

The action at the crypto centre accelerates as one disaster follows another and suspicion succeeds suspicion in a real page turning read.

At the same time her boy friend David Becker was flown off to Spain to trace a missing ring, an essential sub plot with fine pace but there are unfortunately too many coincidences for it to be convincing rather than fun.

Essential reading for Dan Brown fans.

As expected
This definitely fell into the not bad but not brilliant category. It was classic Brown with short snappy chapters that kept you interested in the fast moving story. Reading other reviews and taking note of their criticisms yes, it was predictable but nevertheless was still entertaining enough for me to feel it wasn't a waste of my time. Highly co-incidental and implausible in places but it had to be to make it work; so long as you don't take these types of books too seriously you'll find yourself enjoying the chase and overdone drama.

I still preferred the Da Vinci Code as I thought the subject matter tapped into our love of conspiracy theories better but considering this was written before the Da Vinci Code it was pretty good.

Ctrl + Alt + Del
Not good...

Having really enjoyed his other books, I sadly found this is a poor read. Very dated and amateurish, it is miles behind the "Code", Angels and Demons and the excellent Deception Point.

If you like Dan Brown, stick with the other three books and avoid this like you would an albino monk with a limp ;o)