No comments about The Efficiency Handbook : The Levelheaded and Aggressive Control of Personal Excess, Blind Confusion, and Emotional Extortion.

No comments about Bribery and Extortion in World Business - A Study of Corporate Political Payments Abroad.

No comments about Dr. H.S. Gour's law relating to theft, robbery, and dacoity: Alongwith theft and punishment, extortion, robbery & dacoity, criminal misappropriation of ... breach of trust, receiving stolen property.

5 comments about Bad Memory.

1. Bad Memory is about Simtec (like Dell); big co. selling network cards and PCs, etc, and a hacker, hektor (spelled w a K, yeah cheesy I know) comes in and goes throug their inventory database and mixes up the orders.

   So a client gets the wrong PCs delivered from Simtec and shoots himself. It's stretching credibility a bit. i mean 'excuse me but we're talking wrongly delivered PCs here ok. So the guy's a little loony we're told but still... And this comes in the first 10 pages and supposed to set the pace for the rest of the book.

   I flipped through looking for good bits, but there little suspense or tension to recommend this.

   No doubt the guy's really into the technical stuff but still prety amateurish to computer literate readers; I mean using Netwrok batch commands to mess up Simtec's system? :-)

   No didnt buy the book. Got it from the library.




2. What can I say? Exciting plot, good characters, and an accurate ambiance both within the offices and around the sprawling environs of the countries fourth largest but still somewhat provincial city. If Trollope were working for the US Post Office today, I imagine something like Franklet's Bad Memory would be the result.



3. One of my favorite genres is the techno-thriller. When done well, there is a satisfying feel of surgical precision and great cleverness. "Bad Memory" does not fill the bill. It is a sprawler with a mass of corporate types and thugs. The premise is industrial espionage of a huge computer company.

   The characters are flat and uninteresting. So many threads are begun, and then curiously dropped and never explained. The daughter of the hero is very slow in school causing her parents great worry. We never find out if the child is a late bloomer, retarded, or emotionally upset. It is dropped. The number one villain has a father obsession. We never find out why or who the father is. The corporate bad guy might as well wear a sign around his neck that said "I did it." The story line has little coherence.

   The book was written in 1996, and seems oddly dated. There are pages and pages of computereeze and most of the strategies seem obsolete. Realize that tremendous changes have taken place in the computer industry, but a techno writer should not inhibit himself to what is 1996 cutting edge. A discussion between two techs endorses the plan to give the big boss 32 mgs of memory. Today 128 mgs is common and 256 mgs is the farsighted choice. The cell phones are primitive and fiber optics are unmentioned. A true computer maestro, which I am definitely not, would find the book frustrating. I did not expect the author to be clairvoyant, but I did expect him to have brilliant solutions and some futuristic capabilities.

   This is Mr. Frankjet's first novel, and I don't think he received the editing necessary to tighten up and give his book more focus. I do not recommend the book.




4. The subtitle ~ "a novel of suspense" ~ says it all; the suspense here was excellent; actually, i had to stop reading a couple of times close to the end to catch my breath, and that doesn't often happen to me. The story of a blackmail attempt at a large computer manufacturing company, this book quickly leads you to wonder just how accurate it is, how likely such blackmailing is to happen ~ where has it happened? ~ and how well protected against such disasters are most companies, computer operations or not. Franklet seems to know computers and operating systems; to my ear nothing rang untrue, which is important for the flow of a complex and specialist plot like this one. Not only did he get his ducks in a row though (has he done this himself?), but he can draw characters in a believable way, suggesting an ability to continue his success here with more works, though perhaps with a different cast and plot. I shall watch for his name again, see if he can repeat.



5. I can say that if your not an IT person, you may fnd the book utterly boring. Since I am a Network Administrator, I can say there is a lot of terminology in the book that probably a vast majority will not understand. Packets? Modems? Ethernet? ..well if these words mean nothing, drop the book and walk away immediately. Also the technology was dated, and will be mildly amusing to those in-the-know. I had some laughs about it. The author could have easily skipped numbers and just used the name brands -i.e. 32 megabytes of Ram, and just said -add Ram. I read another review about how how some auther have to give a biography on every person in the book when introducing a new character - Im going to have to agree with that; it's boring at sometimes to read extra pages on someone who isn't in the book much. The book did dry's times but would still make a decent Sunday Night Movie if it contaned a little more action.
   Overall a good book and the last 100 pages hold on your hat because it goes fast.
   *1 Star lost for not tying up some loose ends
   *1 Star lost for massive IT terminology. Not an easy read for those not in the profession at times.

2 comments about The Last Defense.

1. Mercer Early has everything a man could want. He is a defense attorney at one of the most prestigious law firms in the country; he's in love with the boss's daughter; finally one of the two senior partners thinks he's got a bright future ahead of him. He has just won an acquittal for doper Darion Mayfield by proving that the lead detective on the case, Detective Burris beat a confession out of the defendant and then perjured himself on the stand.

   Before Burris is taken into custody, he threatens to get even with Darion. Only a few days later the doper is found dead in a dumpster with a witness placing Burris at the scene. The detective's lover blackmails Mercer into defending Burris who believes his client is innocent and is being framed. Mercer is getting insider information from Internal Affairs Detective Mingus who is investigating an officer who may be responsible for a frame.

   THE LAST DEFENSE is an exciting legal thriller that will appeal to fans of John Grisham. It's obvious that Christopher Darden knows his way around a courtroom as he proves to be a winning writer when paired with veteran author Dick Lochte. The story line is fast-paced hooking the reader from the early courtroom drama to the strong climax.

   Harriet Klausner




2. The Last Defense is proof of life after OJ. Mr. Darden & Mr. Lochte have struck gold with this LA Law mystery thriller. Mr. Darden shows that he is still at his peak performance as a writer. He and Lochte make a great team! I hope there is more to come, like a MOVIE. I loved the Trials of Nikki Hill, and this is even better!!!!!

No comments about The Punisher: The Final Days: Extortion! (The Punisher, Vol. II, No. 53, Oct. 1991).

No comments about Extortionism (Capitalism) in the U.S.A: A text for all ages.

No comments about Norms of communication and commodification.(Symposium: Law, Economics, & Norms): An article from: University of Pennsylvania Law Review.

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