Review of Russia's Biggest Hack

[Tamara Abdellatif]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Russia's Biggest Hack" by James E. Doucette.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Russia's Biggest Hack by James Doucette. A political fiction, set in 1999, nearing the new year and turn of the century. The story is based on a US-leading telecommunications company named Global Communications. We follow John Ward, an employee at Global, while he uncovers a plot by the Russians to take over the company.

The story begins with a plane crash concerning a high-up employee at global named Gordon Fuqua. Ward and two other ex-veterans try to make sense of the accident, along with many other confusing and illogical events that follow. With the help of other people -from inside and outside of Global- their investigation uncovers a Russian plan.

By blackmailing and threatening Global's board chairman Alfred Simms, the Russians thought they could take over Global's leading technology, control it, and restore Russia's Soviet glory. The Russian's deep undercover spies take over the company from the inside. They work on stealing its technology on the pretense of furthering the expansion of Global outside of the US.

What I liked about the book was the writing style of Doucette. It was easy to get lost in the descriptions of scenes throughout the book, especially how he described city layouts and scene setups. Moreover, the structure of the story's dialogue and narration gave it the feel of an action film.

The book was a short read. Regarding that, the beginning was very slow-paced. I wished the events would unfold much faster than they did. It took about 20 chapters for the story to start getting interesting. The beginning of the book felt more like an introduction to the characters, their names, occupations, and backgrounds. It was overwhelming with all the information and little to no plot.

Doucette based most of the book on real-life events. However, there are a few things I found to be absurd in the book, and I couldn't fathom how they would work in real life. Most notably, was how Doucette had based the whole plot on threats to Simms.

Even though the story sets in the late 20th century, surely, a multimillionaire slash head of a wealthy telecommunications company could have had access to technology and people to evade scandal and intimidations by anyone. In the book, it appeared that the author didn't try to explain Simms's reaction to the blackmailing and threats in a logical way and simply regarded him as a foolish and ignorant young man.

I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. Although the beginning of the book was slow, it was still enthralling enough for me to keep reading. Also, I enjoyed the writing technique the author used. I give this rating because of what I've previously mentioned, of the absurdity that nagged me till the end, and a few minor errors in the book.

I recommend this book for people who enjoy light reads on Russian conspiracies, political fiction, and espionage. Readers who lived through the Y2K would find it most enjoyable as well. The book has no adult content or graphic violence.

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Russia's Biggest Hack
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