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The bombing of an entire annex to OmegaSoft-meant to blow up all the movers and doers in the IT division about to gather there for a celebration-is the first in a series of dire warnings from a sinister electronic snoop who intends to prevent OmegaSoft from being awarded a long-term, multi-million dollar contract with the Federal Homeland Security Department (HSD). Omega officers are concerned and rightly so. They want and need that contract. But why should the government and other clients worldwide have confidence in their product if they can't protect their own facility and intellectual property? With everyone in the company on edge, they fasten their hopes on Gravitz, the one who can best convince the HSD search committee that Cold Eyes is the premier product on the market. Will the bombing put them out of the competition? Is the terrorist a radical Jihadist Muslim faction, a resentful rival corporation, or a seriously vengeful insider?
Wracked by fear and sustained only by her determination to fulfill her responsibilities to the company, by finishing version 2 of Cold Eyes in time to capture the coveted government contract, Gravitz secretly sets out to learn the identity of the deranged enemy. While the local police and the FBI work to solve the bombing and subsequent murders, she circumvents their warnings and conducts her own investigation. She needs help, but whom should she trust? With every step she takes toward the truth, she puts herself-and those she respects and loves most-in mortal danger. She has only a few days to unearth the identity of the maniac who, unfortunately, has perfect knowledge of her every move via the company's intranet calendar. Her every move is being monitored, but unless she continues to use the calendar, the company brass and her colleagues will learn about her investigation.
In a high-stakes struggle to beat the clock, she realizes the ruthless fanatic is a genius black hat hacker who uses email and cellphone spoofs and Internet catch sites to hide his identity. In a terrifying confrontation with the adversary, her life hangs in the balance. The pieces of the puzzle have finally fallen into place, but who will know, if she can't make her shocking revelation?
DMicheli
Posted September 9, 2011
In 2007, cybercrime expert and Silicon Valley insider Romina Wilcox had us on the edge of our seats with her gripping thriller, Cold Eyes. Now the heroine of that book, the young and brilliant software architect Joanne Gravitz, is back to stop a terrorist in Wilcox's much-anticipated follow-up, The Calendar. As The Calendar opens, Gravitz's life is finally on the right track. She is engaged to a wonderful doctor who adores her, and she is rapidly moving up the corporate ladder as well. After creating the cyber-security software, Cold Eyes, she was promoted to manager of OmegaSoft's Critical Security Department. Her software designs were also critical in making Omegasoft a frontrunner in the bid for a multimillion dollar contract with the Department of Homeland Security. But when a terrorist blows up one of OmegaSoft's facilities, everything Joanne has worked for is suddenly placed in jeopardy. No one knows whether it was a jihadist, a competing software company, or a disgruntled OmegaSoft employee, but they do know that the U.S. government is not going hire a company that cannot even protect its own assets. When her bosses ask her to repair the damage to the company's reputation, Gravitz races to put the finishing touches on a second version of Cold Eyes before the contract is awarded to someone else. In the meantime, law enforcement uses their usual techniques to solve the crime, but Gravtiz knows that this culprit is anything but usual. Against the orders of her superiors, she launches her own secret investigation to find the terrorist before he can pull off his next attack. But he seems to know her every move, and Joanne soon realizes that he is tracking her through the company's intranet calendar. Is he someone who works for the company, or just a hacker with a taste for blood? Either way, finding him is not going to be easy. In fact, it might just be the last thing she ever does. The Calendar features a new kind of villain, and with him, a new kind of suspense. He hides behind the very technology that has been created to serve us; a faceless evil that can pretend to be just about anyone. His violence, however, is all too real. From the first page to the last, The Calendar held me in its grip. I found that even as I raced to find out what happened, I also didn't want the book to end. The Calendar once again proves that Wilcox is a master of suspense, and it will definitely leave us-- once again-- waiting for her next book.
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Overview
Silicon Valley insider Romina Wilcox brings back newly promoted Critical Security Department manager Joanne Gravitz, architect of OmegaSoft's acclaimed cybersecurity software Cold Eyes. Last seen in 2007's Cold Eyes, a high-tech thriller of the same name, Gravitz is once again caught up in a nail-biting suspense that has her pegged as the target of a depraved terrorist while she exposes the plight of cybersecurity in today's high-tech world.The bombing of an entire annex to OmegaSoft-meant to blow up all the movers and doers in the IT division about to gather there for a celebration-is the first in a series of dire warnings from a sinister electronic snoop who intends to prevent ...