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D.E.M.: Deus Ex Machina
D.E.M.: Deus Ex Machina
D.E.M.: Deus Ex Machina
Ebook312 pages4 hours

D.E.M.: Deus Ex Machina

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The email pinged again. The attachment was a picture of the door to her flat. She reeled. Clasping her hand to her mouth as she retched again.

“It was never about the money, Rachel. It was always about you. I could use someone with your skills. I’ll be in touch. I know where you live. D.E.M.”

No good turn goes unpunished!

When Rachel is spurred to use her computing skills to find an abducted boy, she has no idea that it will bring her to the attention of an anonymous vigilante. Is the vigilante what he seems and what does he want with Rachel?

Rachel is coerced by the mysterious D.E.M. to carry out hacking on seemingly innocuous companies, helped by her friends Deborah, Cam and Cam’s ill-tempered boss, Dave.

As she gets drawn deeper into their world, she tries to find out more, only to put herself and her friends in grave danger.

When she finally realises that the mysterious D.E.M. isn’t a vigilante at all, Rachel is in a race against time to save her friends and prevent an escalation in the war between Israel and Palestine.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherLee Ness
Release dateMar 21, 2015
ISBN9781310519758
D.E.M.: Deus Ex Machina
Author

Lee Ness

Lee Ness writes both fiction and non-fiction books and non-fiction articles. His first book The Sports Motivation Master Plan passes on the experience of many years coaching athletes in multiple sports. His second book, Growth: Using the Mindset Model for Sporting Success, is a mini-book aimed at parents, coaches and athletes but is now included in the 3rd Edition of the Masterplan. Lee's articles appear in Athletics Weekly, on speedendurance.com and on stack.com. Lee is Chairman at City of Salisbury Athletics and Running Club. He has written two historical novels set in Ancient Greece and three espionage thrillers.

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Rating: 4.4000001 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    D.E.M. - Deus Ex Machina is Lee Ness's contemporary thriller on computer hacking and its consequences, both intentional as unintentional. Rachel by impulse reacts to a mysterious email in a desire to justify a recent aduction. Buying a top notch door for her appartment, she forgets basic warnings. Key holders are the weakest links in physical entrance solutions. The same applies for her new Vortex computer. Smart guy and helping hand Cam, and Deb, her so-called innocent neighbour are part of a complot that intrigues Rachel further and further. Emails containing hacking assignments, larger rewards. What starts small ends up in breaking in defense systems providers, impacting allied nations. Geek boy Cam's out for more than computer help, but the flirting offsets Rachel for a long time. It's humorous for the reader to see this play alongside the hacking story line.Several twists keep the pace at high level, building up to a kind of perfect crime completely getting out of hand. You wonder what Ness invents as near escape and happy end. The author really keeps you engaged until the very last page, thanks to the unpredictable course of events. Nothing proves what it seemed to be. Thee main 4 characters are developed and change relationships throughout the book. Great work.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Rachel wants to do the right thing. She tries to help locate an abducted child through her computer skills and ends up finding herself in over her head. Not only is she involved when she hears from a vigilante with other jobs, but she seeks out the help of her friend Cam and drags him into the middle of all of this. Each job she and Cam completes leads them deeper until they’re not sure if they’re working for the good guys or the bad guys. This book is like riding a rollercoaster. You think you know where you’re going in the story then you’re brought over the top on your way to another twist in the story. If you’re not real computer knowledgeable don’t worry, the author has written it in a manner that those of us who know nothing about hacking, etc. can follow along just fine. As you travel this path with them you realize that the money they receive can’t be a good thing because if they don’t do what D.E.M. wants they could be killed. This is one of those books where you know the main character’s initial intentions were good, but saw they were making poor choices that would set it up to take you on a twisting turning thrill ride. Lee Ness did an excellent job of keeping the tension throughout the story.I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Sometimes an impulse decision can start a whole chain reaction of events. This was the case with Rachel when she decided to use her computer skills to help find an abducted child. Her efforts bring her to the attention of an anonymous vigilante who keeps contacting her through email. The vigilante keeps emailing missions for Rachel to complete and each one gets more difficult.Rachel finds that she is getting to deeply involved in a dangerous game. The computer hacking she is asked to do becomes more difficult so she enlists the help of friends. As the stakes get higher Rachel finds out without knowing it that she has been enlisted into a secret organization. Her next mission will be to prevent a war between Israel and Palestine.I have to admit when I heard about D.E.M. Deus Ex Machina by Lee Ness I was apprehensive. Its a spy novel and it had a lot about computers in it. As far as reading goes, this isn’t what I usually like, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I decided to give it a shot because I thought it would be fun to read something that was different and it blew me away.In the beginning I was a little confused as to what was going on because the action moved so quickly. We start with an abduction with Rachel deciding she has to do something, then we see that Rachel’s actions have brought her to the attention of someone who is extremely dangerous. This all happens in a few pages, then we get into the mystery of who is giving Rachel strange tasks via email to complete and what do they really want from her.The first half of the book I was trying to guess who the person was that was giving Rachel things to do. Right when I felt I had it figured out the story goes in a completely different direction and goes from a mystery to a fast paced action novel. D.E.M. Deus Ex Machina has everything you could want in a book. The characters are fascinating and full of surprises and the story never gets boring. This book starts with a bang, slows down to let you have a vested interest in the characters then takes you on a roller coaster ride. This novel has a perfect plot and is a well told unpredictable story.Another thing that amazed me about this book is all the computer terminology in it. Lee Ness must have a lot of computer experience or did a lot of research because he gives a lot of information that went over my head. I enjoyed it because I felt I was learning while I read. The best part of the book is the characters in it. No one was what they seemed to be and the relationship between the main 4 characters changes throughout the book. There is never a dull moment in D.E.M. Deus Ex Machina and I found myself thinking it would make an excellent action movie. If you love spy novels, this one is great one. I saw on Lee Ness’s website that he is currently working on a sequel so I’m happy to see that this will be a series. Give this book a try you won’t be disappointed.

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D.E.M. - Lee Ness

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