Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
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Searching... Monmouth Public Library | Fic Singer, R. 2007 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Silver Falls Library | IF SINGER | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
An Explosive Secret. An Invaluable Code. An Unreliable Witness. Three ambitious law students at a local legal aid clinic watch as their routine case representing a man named David Hoffman ignites an incendiary trail of deception and betrayal. A member of the witness protection program, Hoffman has defrauded the government and eluded the Mob's pursuit of his stunning secret: a coded algorithm capable of crippling the Internet and disarming national security. Because of the intense threat posed by such a code, federal agents want Hoffman dead or alive. But the Mob wants him alive, more than willing to obtain the algorithm by whatever means necessary. And the would-be lawyers--caught in the middle of this deadly triangle--must overcome their differences and work together if they're to survive long enough to graduate. Bestselling author Randy Singer offers up his most dynamic legal thriller yet in a story based on his own real-life experience as an attorney assisting the U.S. Witness Protection Program. With page-turning suspense and heart-stopping twists,False Witnessdelivers on every level.
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this gripping, obsessively readable legal thriller, Singer proves himself to be the Christian John Grisham. At the outset of the tale, bounty hunter Clarke Shealy gets an ominous phone call-a Chinese mafioso has taken Shealy's wife hostage, and if Shealy wants to see her again, he must track down a missing Chinese mathematician, who has discovered an extremely valuable algorithm that could change Internet technology forever. The first half of the novel follows Shealy as he tries to rescue his wife. Then Singer takes readers to a prestigious law school in the Southeast, where three top-notch students work at a legal aid clinic. Supervised by a professor who may not be what he seems, the students find themselves involved with a couple in the witness protection program. The two halves of the novel tie together seamlessly, and Singer introduces Christian faith with a very light touch. The three students-an African-American ex-jock who aims to be the next Johnnie Cochran, a feisty woman who wants to be a prosecutor so she can avenge her mother's brutal death, and a nerdy but endearing math whiz who wants to practice patent law-are especially well-developed. Indeed, readers may want to meet them again in a sequel. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
The hunt for a code that would end the Internet as we know it pits three spunky law students against an unscrupulous FBI and vicious Chinese gangsters. Squeaky-clean Christian thriller-writer Singer teases with a fast-moving, semi-zany opening section in which repo-man David Hoffman, working his jittery trade in Vegas, learns that he has 48 hours to locate Professor Dagan, whose Abacus Algorithm easily undoes the Internet's most deeply imbedded security safeguards. Committed Christian Dagan planned to sell his secret to the world's three most powerful private security firms and send his profits to churches in China, but the buyers were actually Triad gangsters who hold Hoffman's peppy athletic wife Jessica hostage until they have their hands on that handy algorithm. Hoffman flounders for a few seconds, but comes up with a strategy in which he pledges every cent he has plus some he doesn't to get information about Dagan from the local and well-informed community of bail bondsmen and repo-people and, within the deadline, he's got his man. Then, in the handover of Dagan, the noble professor has to sacrifice himself to keep the Hoffmans alive. Cut to Atlanta, where the action bogs. Laser-focused third-year law student Jamie Brock and her Criminal Procedure classmates--studly, flamboyant, African-American Isaiah Washington and brilliant, nerdy, prodigy Wellington Farnsworth--have to endure the tiresome Socratic teaching methods of pudgy ex-Californian super-attorney-turned-professor Walter Snead. Snead, whose reputation is as unpleasant as his classroom manner, is also the supervisor of the legal-aid clinic where Jamie and Isaiah meet the downtrodden, including a client who doesn't fit the usual profile when he first seeks help from Jamie and then takes it on the lam and disappears. Before you can say "witness protection program," Jamie, Isaiah and Wellington are surrounded by bad guys, some of whom are so awful they kill a totally blameless Labrador retriever in cold blood! A rousing opening degenerates into a routine legal thriller. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.