An interesting new book I read over the Christmas holiday was entitled
"Death Match" written by author Lincoln Child, published in April,
2004 by Doubleday division of Random House. The ISBN is 0-385-50670-8.
Another book by Mr. Child was titled "Utopia".
"Death Match" is a story about an imaginary Internet 'Dating/Match
Service' operating in New York City. This Internet Dating Service
is called 'Eden'. Unlike more 'primitive internet dating services'
which only ask a bunch of questions then proceed to match two
people together (i.e. Yahoo, but not named in the book), the fictional
service known as 'Eden' is much more expensive (for example, like
'e-harmony.com' but, again, not named as such), and uses several
very complex computer algorythms to match people together and
costs a lot more money. Eden takes much pride in putting together
'super couples'; people who are matched at 95 percent or better in
all the aspects, offering a lifetime guarentee of a pefect mate.
But, as Eden discovers, strange disasters begin to occur to the
couples they match up. One supercouple commits apparently a double-
suicide exactly two years to the day they first were introduced
through Eden. Then a few weeks later, a second 'supercouple' also
die, and police say that was a double-suicide pact also. Eden decides
to investigate it further. They hire a forensic psychologist who had
been employed by the FBI as a profiler to look into the whole thing.
He is given free reign to examine all the aspects of the way the
business is run, and he gets that free reign until he begins to
discover some ugly details about the company's founder, a recluse who
lives in a penthouse at the top of the Eden building with a very
sophisticated computer network they call 'Lisa', which is a take off
on the name 'Eliza' which I believe is or was a very large, very fast,
very intelligent computer at MIT which uses artificial intelligence.
The story takes a number of interesting twists and turns and I think
you might enjoy it. Mr. Child has authored several best selling
thrillers, including co-authoring some books with Douglas Preston such
as 'Relic', 'The Cabinet of Curiosities', and 'Still Life With
Crows'. He lives with his family in Morristown, NJ.
Patrick Townson
Patrick Townson (ptownson@telecom-digest.org)