This is Jeffery Deaver’s first venture into a cyberthriller and he does a pretty good job.  The strength of the novel is its plot: a no-holds-barred contest between two hackers.  Wyatt Gillette is doing time for a few minor computer crimes when he is offered a temporary reprieve if he helps the state police track down a murderous cracker called Phate.  The plot takes one turn after another, building suspense as Phate searches for new victims and Gillette tries to stop him.  Why is Phate committing these murders?  Who is his partner?  Who’s the traitor within the police?  Is Gillette really a good guy?  Plenty of mystery and suspense to keep you turning the pages.

Although the plot is terrific, the story has a couple of weak points.  Deaver is not a computer pro and it shows.  Although many of the inaccuracies are minor – only a technically sophisticated person would notice – some of them were really ridiculous (Gillette’s fingertips are so strong from fingertip pushups that they crush keyboards during coding sessions).

Another problem is that Phate turns out to be a stock character – I won’t give away the details, but you could probably put together a description without reading the novel.  It’s too bad because he starts out as an interesting, mysterious adversary.  Still, the Blue Nowhere is a good thriller, well worth reading.