THE GOD'S EYE VIEW

A timely thriller that will make readers wonder how much the government really knows about them.

Gen. Anders is the new head of the National Security Agency, and he has big plans for protecting the nation by scooping up information about everyone. But there has been a breach in God's Eye, a data collection program that hoovers up everything the government wants to know. The "colossal vacuum [of] the director's 'collect it all' fever dream" is an Orwellian project that Anders feels cannot be made public. But some Snowden/Assange type has siphoned off information that if brought to light could devastate the program. So he must find out who has the incriminating thumb drive that holds the data and kill whomever it is. He arranges a murder and a horrific explosion in Washington, D.C., that he blames on ISIS to distract the "privacy freaks." Meanwhile, assistant Evie Gallagher suspects he's up to no good and quietly noses around. The single mom has a deaf son named Dash, and Anders has a murderous enforcer, Manus, who is also deaf. That commonality helps set up a vivid sex scene with Manus and Evie, a liaison definitely not helpful to Anders. Manus has a dangerously soft spot for Dash and Evie, whom he is supposed to neutralize. The pace moves along briskly for the most part, and the characters are no deeper than they need to be: Anders = bad, Evie = good. Manus is the only one with any complexity, a killing machine with a heart. Of course, while the God's Eye is a work of fiction, it's an entirely plausible one. Perhaps the government does invade our privacy this deeply or will do so when it can. Remember though, it's for our own good.

An engaging tale about a serious issue. Read it and squirm.