Intrusion by Reece Hirsch

Published by Thomas & Mercer on December 9, 2014

Trying to make Intellectual Property law interesting is, well, just plain impossible. Trying to make an IP lawyer into an action hero is, well, just plain silly. Reece Hirsch gave it a good try but, at least in this novel, didn't make it work.

Someone has stolen the search algorithms of Zapper (a thinly disguised Google), causing Zapper's CEO to assemble a Dream Team of hackers and security specialists. The culprits appear to be in China, perhaps even working for the Chinese government. Zapper's IP lawyer, Chris Bruen, improbably decides to go to China to track down the thieves himself ... because IP lawyers are so well-equipped to take on the People's Liberation Army. Bruen specializes in safeguarding the privacy of clients but he takes a more hands-on offensive against hackers than the traditional "sue them into oblivion" approach. He is assisted by a former hacker who now runs the law firm's forensics lab.

Bruen's exploits in China are the conventional stuff of thrillers but they seem all-too-easy. A section of the novel that explains the making of a Chinese hit man is equally unconvincing. After Bruen returns to the US, he spends most of his time dodging the hit man. His actions are predictable and dull. He later comes running to the rescue of another character in San Francisco instead of waiting for the police to respond to his request for assistance. Seriously? Some of the novel's dialog fails to ring true although the prose in general is passable if unmemorable.

To be fair, there is an element of mystery to the plot. The kind of misdirection that is common in a mystery worked on me, although when the mystery was resolved I didn't buy the resolution (I can't say why without spoiling the mystery). Since the plots of most modern thrillers are founded on the implausible, however, I can't fault Hirsch for following that trend. More troublesome is that, once again, Bruen's ability to expose the wrongdoing is just a little too easy. Thrillers need to build tension and this one doesn't.

Intrusion does contain some interesting discussions about the ethics of hacking and the desire to set information free. Hirsch obviously understands the implications of data mining and the uses (some good, some nefarious) to which they can be put -- whether by the Chinese government, the American government, or a corporation like Google. That makes the novel interesting rather than exciting. The basics of a good thriller are here, but the thrills are largely missing and the characters are dull.

NOT RECOMMENDED