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Kill Process by William Hertling
Published in May of 2016.
Kill Process combines (at least) 7 elements that should convince you to download:
1 - Techno Thriller: Kill Process is not a thriller written by a writer who has done his tech homework. Rather, Kill Process is written by techie who has done his thriller homework. William Hertling is an engineer - a working developer and tech executive - and his books make good use of his expertise. Getting the tech right in a techno thriller is very important to anyone working in tech. For non-coders, reading Kill Process is a very entertaining way to learn something about the mechanics of hacking and the vulnerability of our digital (and mechanical) systems.
2 - Crime Thriller: The first line of Kill Process is “The thing you have to know about me, to understand everything that’s coming, is that I kill people.” Great first line. This statement is uttered by Angie, the one-armed revenge seeking, database programming, and startup founding protagonist.
3 - Startup Thriller: There is a new genre of books coming online - the startup thriller. These are books that put the creation of a startup company as a central element of the plot. Kill Process put the creation of a new social networking company - Tapestry (an alternative to an evil FaceBook clone Tomo), as central to the plot. We learn not only about how to kill with a WiFi enabled furnace, but also about the world of angel investors, venture capitalists, and seed funding through the eyes of a founder.
4 - Spy Thriller: In Kill Process, the bad guys work for a dark corner of Naval Intelligence (by way of the FCC). The vast data mining and analysis capacities of the NSA (not fiction) are also important to the plot. Who doesn’t like a book that features US government employees who have side jobs as sadistic killers doing the bidding of the 1 percent?
5 - Non-Traditional Publishing: KIll Process, like Hertling's previous books (which are great), is indie published. The author includes a note at the end of the book that says:
"As an indie published author, I don’t have the support of a large marketing department at a major publisher. Instead, I’m dependent on readers like you to spread the word. If you enjoyed Kill Process, please:
- Post a review online.
- Tell a friend or two about Kill Process, or post about it on social media.
- Subscribe to my mailing list at www.williamhertling.com to find out when my next book comes out."
Done, done, and done.
6 - Low Price: The Kindle version of Kill Process is on $4.99. The audiobook is priced at $1.99.
7 - Whispersync Enabled: Best of all, Kill Process is Whispersync enabled - meaning that it is dead simple to go back and forth between the e-book and the audiobook version. I recommend reading the book (with your eyes and your ears) on your phone with the free Kindle app.
What techno/crime/startup/spy thriller do you recommend for summer reading?
