Dark End of the Spectrum

By Anthony S. Policastro

"The family elements in the story - the real struggles with marriage, raising a family, making a living, and just trying to enjoy life - have broadened the book's appeal to a wider audience, primarily women who are not into technology."

DARK END OF SPECTRUM will make you think twice before turning on your cell phone or PDA!

DARK END OF THE SPECTRUM is a frighteningly plausible and headline ripping tale of the real threats that loom in cyberspace and beyond with a Michael Crichton realism. Based on the author's years of research into the hacker culture.

DARK END OF THE SPECTRUM is a thriller that will connect with everyone with a cell phone, PDA or wireless device.

When a group of digital terrorists known as ICER take over the US power grid and the cell phone network, they give the government an ultimatum - bomb the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan with nuclear weapons to put an end to Al-Quada or they will start downing commercial airliners. When the government refuses, ICER destroys most of the downed aircraft in airports all over the country. When ICER sends a pulse that will kill millions on the East Coast, only security expert Dan Riker can stop them, but ICER has kidnapped Dan's family.

Will Dan save his family or will millions die?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Outer Banks Publishing Group
• Release date: Feb 3, 2009
• ISBN: 9781452402345

Anthony S. Policastro

Writing has been something I always did no matter where the winds of life took me. I always wrote. It could be a paragraph here or there, an idea for a new piece of technology or how I felt about a particular political situation or news event. I feel I have this voice inside that is always trying to say something, get its message out, make a difference, enlighten, entertain or just make people see things a little differently. I think everyone has a unique voice, but some choose to express theirs more than others. Mine seems to be shouting all the time. Words are powerful things – they change people for better or worse, move mountains, and cause monumental changes. Look what words did to Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare’s words are just as powerful today as they were when he wrote them over 500 years ago. Imagine, writing something today that is so universal, so truthful, so inspiring that people still read it 500 years from now. Words have that powerful effect on us no matter where we find them, in a book, in a magazine, on a computer screen. Words are food for the mind. They make us think, imagine, dream, dance in the joy of the things we love. When I write a scene I know that each one of us who reads it will see different images, experience a different experience and have a unique feeling. This is the power of storytelling. TV or video games can never awaken our imaginations like words do when you read a story. If you choose to express your inner voice through words like I do, then all you can do is write. ________________________________________ Anthony S. Policastro has been writing all his life. The publication of his first novel is the pinnacle of his work having previously published articles in The New York Times, American Photographer and other national, regional, and local publications. Policastro was the former editor-in-chief of Carolina Style magazine, a regional lifestyle publication similar to Southern Living magazine. He was a former journalist, photographer, and webmaster. The author’s background is in technology, business intelligence, and communications. He is the former senior business analyst for Lulu.com, the largest do-it-yourself publisher in the world headquartered in Raleigh, NC. A member of the Backspace writers group, he has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Creative Writing and a BA in American Studies both from Penn State University. His short essay on “What does it mean to be an American family” won in the Borders books Gather.com contest to promote the movie and book, Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. He currently writes a blog with Michael Neff, creator and editor of the Webdelsol and Algonkian websites, about writers’ issues called The Writer’s Edge. Policastro and Neff have been referred to as the Ebert and Roeper of the literary scene with their point/counterpoint posts. Born in New Jersey, he now lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with his wife. He has two sons and a daughter.

Book preview

Reviews for Dark End of the Spectrum

[sheiladeeth_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

At 468 pages, Dark End of the Spectrum, by Anthony S. Policastro, felt rather long to me, but the pages turned quickly, even on a computer, and by the time the CIA arrived to take Dan away from his family on a sunny day off I was thoroughly hooked. I’m not sure what I’d have done then if my cell-phone had rung.The author understands technology. He talks about Ultra Wide Band transmissions and 512 bit encryption, and I wonder how out of date I am. But he’s plausible and convincing when he describes the danger of secure networks being compromised by wireless devices. It’s certainly interesting to see how we might sacrifice security for simplicity, and then to be sideswiped by the idea that we might have sacrificed security in the name of avoiding terrorism too.But the novel isn’t just about technology gone wild. Dan has a wife and child and a home life too, and the up-down relationship of a marriage strained by work grounds the tale very realistically. The author writes convincing dialog, and Amelia’s sudden anger as Dan leaves to help the CIA saddened me because of its plausibility. It did disappoint me that Dan so easily attributes her outburst to her period. But then…Well, then the story really takes off. DEWs and HSPs and other acronyms abound, but the reader soon learns to speak the same language. Dan runs for his life, not knowing who to trust, while the whole world falls apart. Cars, helicopters and houses are destroyed. People die, spectacularly. And, when the whole country is held to ransom, even the President gets involved.Descriptive details and discussions slowed the story down at times, but not enough to distract me from reading on. I stayed hunched over the computer late at night, wishing I had a paperback to carry to bed, but unable to stop reading. This is certainly a thrilling book for anyone who likes technology, conspiracy, action and disaster; one to read when you’ve plenty of time to spare because you’ll not want to put it down. Your computer had better not be acting up and your cell-phone not be on the blink. And you’d better hope no one hacks into the power grid.