Robert Harris: The Fear Index

Page 402

Language English

Year 2011

ISBN 9780099553267

High tech finance and sophisticated computer programming combine in this terrifying and fiendishly smart new novel from Robert Harris.

Dr. Alex Hoffmann stays out of the public spotlight, but within the secretive inner circles of the ultra-rich he is a legend. And now he has developed a revolutionary form of artificial intelligence that predicts movements in the financial markets with uncanny accuracy. As a result, his Geneva-based hedge fund is poised to make billions. But one morning before dawn, a sinister intruder breaches the elaborate security of his lakeside mansion. So begins a waking nightmare of paranoia and violence as Hoffmann attempts, with increasing desperation, to discover who is trying to destroy him.

A pulse-pounding tale.” —New York Post

“Robert Harris is at the top of his game.” —The Oregonian

“Harris delivers a superbly entertaining read for our time.” —Newsweek

“A fiendish little tale that has the body of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein with the head of Stanley Kubrick’s HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey bolted on top . . . It doesn’t take a super-computer to know The Fear Index is a worthwhile investment of your time.” —USA Today

“Harris has shown himself a master of the thriller form, regardless of context . . . Readers may find themselves lying awake at night unsettled by the story.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Fleet-footed . . . Weaving copious research into a breathless narrative, much as he did in his historical best sellers, Fatherland and Pompeii, Harris in the opening chapters does an agile job of limning the elite world inhabited by Dr. Alexander Hoffmann . . . He expertly conjures a paranoid world where everyone seems to be watching everyone else.” —The New York Times