‘Remote Access’ by Barry Finlay

Published by Keep on Climbing Publishing,
3 April 2018.
ISBN: 978-0-9959379-2-5 (PB)

Yang Lee is a very talented chap who believes in selling his skills to the highest bidder. The first skill he possesses is to kill people using a variety of ingenious and difficult-to-trace methods, the second is hacking computers. When we meet Lee he has two employers, the Chinese government, and Bai Hu, head of Hu electronics. They both want him to do the same thing i.e. to stop the President of the United States from signing an executive order to impose crippling tariffs on Chinese electronic goods imported into the US. 

Lee knows that he needs to work quickly. President Hughs is capricious character who likes to rely on his own judgment and isn’t too keen on taking expert advice.  He might decide to sign the order at any time. Lee also knows that he cannot afford to fail: not only would future assignments dry up; his disgruntled employers would probably assassinate him. Desperate measures are needed so Lee decides to put pressure on President Hughs’ chief of staff, Craig Logan.  He thinks that by sending online messages to Craig’s wife, Annie Logan, threatening to ruin their lives he can blackmail Craig into influencing the President to change his mind about imposing the tariffs. 

Annie is distraught.  She is living is the couple’s country home in Gulfport, Florida and missing Craig who is busy in Washington.  Annie has already taken to drink to console herself and she simply can’t cope when strange instructions arrive on her computer and horrible things start happening in her life. Desperate for help, she turns to Marcie Kane.  Marcie is about to marry Nathan Harris, ex-FBI, who now runs his own investigative agency.

Marcie, Nathan, and old FBI colleagues help Annie.  Their intervention makes Lee’s job much harder, so he decides that nothing short of a trip to the US to make a direct attack on the President will suffice.

Remote Access is a good–fun, very topical, page-turning, political thriller that made an excellent holiday read.  

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Reviewer Angela Crowther

Barry Finlay is a fiction and non-fiction author. In his previous life, he had an extensive career in financial management before retiring in 2004, after thirty-two years with the Canadian federal government. Since retiring, he has divided his time between writing, working as a consultant on financial policy matters, travel, playing golf, climbing mountains, philanthropy and enjoying his three grandchildren. In 2009, Barry climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with his son, Chris. The experience of climbing Africa's highest mountain at age 60 with one of his sons and discovering the satisfaction of reaching a goal and giving others the opportunity to achieve theirs, inspired the book Kilimanjaro and Beyond which won numerous awards and Barry is featured in the Authors Show book, "50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading."  His 2nd book, a travel memoir called I Guess We Missed The Boat, also non-fiction, received the 2013/14 Reader Views Literary Award in the Travel category.  His 3rd book, a work of fiction called The Vanishing Wife was released in 2014. On the merits of The Vanishing Wife, Barry was named as a winner of a Canada Book Award for his accomplishment and contribution to the publishing world. It was also named the best e-book in the Thriller/Mystery category by New Apple Literary Awards.  His newest, A Perilous Question, received awards for the best Thriller/Suspense in the New Apple Literary Awards e-book category, Official Selection in the 2016 New Apple Book Awards: Suspense / Thriller (paperback).  Barry is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee medal for philanthropy.

www.barry-finlay.com

Angela Crowther is a retired scientist.  She has published many scientific papers but, as yet, no crime fiction.  In her spare time Angela belongs to a Handbell Ringing group, goes country dancing and enjoys listening to music, particularly the operas of Verdi and Wagner.