Going Zero by Anthony McCarten - you have two hours to get off the grid!
Title: Going Zero Author: Anthony McCarten Narrator: Marin Ireland Publication: Harper Audio, 2023 Genre: Suspense Setting: United States
Description: Ten Americans – five skilled, five amateurs – have been chosen to test a new surveillance software in a partnership between the CIA and a no-holds-barred company called WorldShare, run by brilliant Cy Baxter and his girlfriend/co-founder Erika Coogan. Any contestant who can go off the grid and avoid being caught by Cy’s Fusion spyware and brilliant analysts for an entire month will win $3 million tax free. Our protagonist is Kaitlyn Day, an unassuming librarian from Boston who is determined to win (yes, of course, I was rooting for her!). The contestants get a two-hour head start before the computer get turned on but staying invisible is virtually impossible when there are cameras everywhere, plus electronic eyes on every email, transaction, coworker – Kaitlyn planned carefully and tries to stay a step ahead but how can she outwit the most powerful minds in the country?
My Impression: The New York Times recommended Going Zero as a summer thriller so I put the audio book on hold and I was enthralled from the beginning. With a modest Boston apartment full of books, Kaitlyn is an easy character to identify with – she is smart and resourceful, and it becomes clear that while she is not a professional, she has planned carefully how to avoid surveillance, changing the way she walks and avoiding places with lots of cameras. She has a personal reason for wanting to win and it involves more than the $3 million prize.
In contrast to Kaitlyn, who is quiet but determined, Cy Baxter soon reveals himself as a blustering villain. At first, he is mildly pleased that untrained Kaitlyn manages to elude his keen staffers but as she manages to stay out of reach, she threatens the success of the Fusion test. This is more than just a test to Baxter as he wants to convince the CIA that his software is essential, although it violates ordinary citizens’ expectations of privacy. Erika Coogan, his long-time romantic and business partner, is used to apologizing for Baxter’s crossing the line of what is legal vs. illegal surveillance but she and Baxter have found that most people and organizations are willing to sacrifice privacy for the illusion of security or power, respectively.
This was the kind of book you can’t stop thinking about while you are reading or listening. I kept providing various coworkers a synopsis (captive audience; we were in my car on the way to a function) and asking if they knew where they would go if they had to go off the grid but couldn’t hide or get help from someone easily connected to them. No family, no one you have emailed or texted, can’t use your car, or an ATM or your Passport. One character was found because of his weakness for Oreos so I know that I would get caught if I ran out of books and sneaked into a bookstore or library – that is definitely where the government would be looking for me! Clearly, I would have to stock my hiding place in advance with hundreds of books and enough pasta to last a month.
Source: Library. This is my eleventh book for Carol’s Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge. McCarten is a New Zealand-born author and a screenwriter gifted enough to write a story that would make a good movie.
What a great concept for a thriller. Your review got me to thinking about the problem...and just how difficult something like that would be to pull off. I ended up tossing every idea I could come up, some for more obvious reasons than others. I need to take a look at this one...might end up being a good "training manual" at some point.
Absolutely! I will not rest until I think of a place I could hide out. It might have to be like Strangers on a Train to avoid detection. An empty vacation home perhaps? But it would have to be remote or someone might notice the lights. This heroine did place some things she'd need (like a tent) in key places so one could fill the house with books and canned food in advance if one could do it without a noisy neighbor wondering.
Everyone needs a thriller for summer! I think the NYT's summer article also recommended classics like Rebecca and Presumed Innocent but there was also one when it first came out and I seem to have put nearly every title mentioned on hold at the library, although froze some so they wouldn't all come at once.
It sounds like an enticing premise. Who wouldn't want to hide for $3 mil? Marin Ireland is excellent with audiobooks. I might check it out. I'm not sure I heard of this one.
What a great concept for a thriller. Your review got me to thinking about the problem...and just how difficult something like that would be to pull off. I ended up tossing every idea I could come up, some for more obvious reasons than others. I need to take a look at this one...might end up being a good "training manual" at some point.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! I will not rest until I think of a place I could hide out. It might have to be like Strangers on a Train to avoid detection. An empty vacation home perhaps? But it would have to be remote or someone might notice the lights. This heroine did place some things she'd need (like a tent) in key places so one could fill the house with books and canned food in advance if one could do it without a noisy neighbor wondering.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds great and it's absolutely the kind of book I only pick up now because of your influence!
ReplyDeleteEveryone needs a thriller for summer! I think the NYT's summer article also recommended classics like Rebecca and Presumed Innocent but there was also one when it first came out and I seem to have put nearly every title mentioned on hold at the library, although froze some so they wouldn't all come at once.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like an enticing premise. Who wouldn't want to hide for $3 mil? Marin Ireland is excellent with audiobooks. I might check it out. I'm not sure I heard of this one.
ReplyDelete