Available:*
Material Type | Library | Call Number | Item Barcode | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Book | Searching... Dracut - Moses Greeley Parker Memorial Library | FIC/FARNSWORTH | 31482002748179 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Lowell - Pollard Memorial Library | FIC FARNSWORTH | 31481005254532 | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2017
Gifted troubleshooter John Smith, introduced in the acclaimed thriller Killfile, must take down a shadowy figure who has weaponized the internet, using social media to put a price on the heads of his targets in this intense, unstoppable thriller from the author reviewers have compared to Michael Crichton, Brad Thor, and James Rollins.
As a fixer for America's one percent, John Smith cleans up the messes of those rich enough to afford him. But he's no ordinary gun for hire. Smith is a man of rare gifts, including the ability to read minds. Arriving at the wedding of Kira Sadeghi, a reality television celebrity he recently saved from kidnappers, Smith witnesses a group of gunmen open fire, hitting the bride and others. Though he's unarmed, Smith cripples one of the killers and is able to pry one word from his mind: "Downvote."
Eager to learn more, Smith hacks into the brain of an FBI agent investigating the attack to discover the Bureau has been investigating a nefarious new threat called "Downvote," an encrypted site on the "dark net" that lists the names of celebrities and offers a hefty bounty for anyone who can kill them--unleashing an anonymous and deadly flashmob with a keystroke.
Finding a mastermind on the internet is like trying to catch air--unless you're John Smith. Motivated by money and revenge, he traces a series of electronic signatures to a reclusive billionaire living at sea, accompanied by a scary-smart female bodyguard who becomes Smith's partner in his quest. The hunt for their prey will lead from Hong Kong to Reykjavik to a luxury gambling resort deep in the Laotian jungle. Yet always this criminal mastermind remains one step ahead.
The only way Downvote's creator can stop Smith is to kill him . . . because while this diabolical genius can run, there's no hiding from a man who can read minds.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The main elements of Farnsworth's brilliant second thriller featuring the man known as John Smith (after 2016's Killfile) would individually be enough to sustain interest; the combination of a telepathic lead and a terrifyingly plausible effort to use the Internet for social manipulation produces intelligent and knuckle-biting suspense. After 9/11, Smith has served his country by reading the thoughts of terrorists and planting painful sensations in their minds. He's confronted with an even greater challenge when he becomes a private security consultant. After witnessing the attempted shooting of a reality TV personality in the middle of her wedding at a Santa Monica, Calif., hotel, Smith learns the disturbing truth behind the violence. The investigating FBI agent, Greg Vincent, shares his suspicions that the crime was caused by a website called Downvote. The site, which encourages the worst in humanity, features the "most hated people on the Internet at any given moment" and produces a de facto hit list that some of its visitors have already acted on. Farnsworth credibly ups the ante for his hero and makes accepting his paranormal abilities easy. Many will want to read this novel in one sitting. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, ICM. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
John Smith, the mind-reading crime fighter introduced in Killfile (2016), goes up against Downvote, a darknet site that incites violence against targeted individuals.The victims range from gay rights activists to stuck-up cheerleaders to media types. The latest target is pouty reality TV star Kira Sadeghi, who's gunned down at her wedding. Smith, a former CIA special ops man working for a secret Los Angeles-based organization, has a personal stake in the case. Kira, whom he saved from kidnappers a year ago, went to bed with him a few weeks before her weddingand, more important, treated him with unexpected tenderness when he was wracked by the convulsions he gets after using his power to implant dire fears in his opponents ("I get back a percentage of everything I inflict"). After visiting the offshore yacht where Aaric Stack, billionaire inventor of an anonymous cash transfer app, evades the feds, Smith determines they're wrong in thinking Stack is the man behind Downvote. Teaming up with Stack's fetching and ferocious bodyguard, Smith tracks down the real culprit. The trail leads them to Reykjavik, Bucharest, Hong Kong, and Laos, lands them in jail, and exposes them to physical punishment. Sometimes, even Smith's powers can't stop the bad guys from hitting him in the head really hard. This is another entertaining performance by Farnsworth, who brings an edgy sense of humor to the proceedings. But Smith's freakish skills aren't quite as impressive the second time around, and the plot doesn't exert the same pull. More could be made of the flash-mob concept. Farnsworth's follow-up to Killfile is a smooth, assured effort but lacks some of the first book's excitementpartly because the methods and mentality of its strangely gifted protagonist have lost some of their freshness. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
John Smith, the uniquely talented fixer introduced in Killfile (2016), returns. This time he is up against a clever and anonymous villain who runs a website, Downvote, which puts prices on celebrities' heads. Finding a guy who doesn't want to be found is never an easy task, but John has an extraordinary gift: he can read minds. Not only that, he can influence people's thoughts, can even plant his own thoughts in their heads. So, from one mind to another, Smith tracks down the bad guy by stealing the one thing people think can never be stolen: their thoughts. Farnsworth, best known for the President's Vampire series (which began with 2010's Blood Oath), is a genuinely gifted storyteller, able to take a fantastic premise and build onto it a story that feels not just plausible but completely natural. We totally believe that John Smith is a real person (it helps that the story is told in the first person), and we totally believe that he really can read minds. A fine genre-bender.--Pitt, David Copyright 2010 Booklist