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The Empress File (1992)

The Empress File (1992)

Book Info

Author
Genre
Rating
3.58 of 5 Votes: 6
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ISBN
0425135020 (ISBN13: 9780425135020)
Language
English
Publisher
berkley

About book The Empress File (1992)

John Sandford is not all ‘Prey’ novels, ‘Flowers’ and Jack Davenport. He actually has another series that has not seen as many outings, but still holds up to scrutiny. The ‘Kidd’ novels surround a computer hacker/artist named Kidd who specialises in making money, but also dishing out a little social justice if he can. Both are these are sorely needed by the start of ‘The Empress File’, a novel written 25 years ago, but still has a poignant plot for today. When a young black man is mistakenly shot dead by a cop, justice is not served and instead the corrupt officials of this small town brush it under the carpet. Kidd and his on/off girlfriend/cat burglar Lu-Ellen are asked to clean up the streets.The issue with having a technology wizard at the centre of your books is that the computers of 1991 are significantly different than they are now. It is true that the hacking and computer elements of this novel are quaint, but do ring very true for the time. Unlike in the earlier ‘The Fool’s Run’, the computer work does not sit front and centre to the story. Instead it is more familiar Sandford thrills that we are entertained with. The story of racial prejudice really adds to this as you want to see the bad people punished and if that means that Kidd walks away with a few extra pounds, even better.What separates ‘The Empress File’ from a run of the mill 90s thriller is the greyness of Kidd and Lu-Ellen. They are professional criminals and although they are willing to help people, they are also willing to forget about a murder if they can benefit from it. They are not the nicest of people, but their mission here is noble. I also liked the use of Tarot Cards as game theory. Kidd claims not to believe in them, but instead uses them to explore possible avenues that he would not consider otherwise. This is a great way of opening the plot as Kidd is sometimes prone to do things a little differently than you may first expect.‘Empress’ does not have the split structure of the majority of ‘Prey’ novels and is told instead in a straight narrative. This works well, but the book is not as good as the best Davenport novels. However, Sandford fans should certainly go out of their way to sample this particular book in the Kidd series as it is one of the strongest.

The second in the KIDD novels, this one heads a completely different direction than the first. Instead of corporate spying, Kidd and his partners head into the deep south and get involved in a political tug-of-war.In all honesty, this wasn't one of my favorite Sandford novels, but it was a diverting read. It was nice to have him try something different, and the southern setting and look at race relations and small-town secrets led to some interesting moments. Overall, though, it wasn't as cohesive or suspenseful as the best of the Lucas Davenport books. There were several plot twists that I predicted, and the ending fell a bit flat for me.Still, it's better than 80% of the thrillers out there, and worth your time for a quick, diverting read.

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The Empress File by John Sandford is book 2 of the Kidd and LuEllen mystery thriller series. Set in a small Southern town along the Mississippi, it delivers all the stereotypes: bigotry, racism, corruption, a political "machine", a beautiful young black couple who want to change it all for the better. Kidd is a master con artist, LuEllen a master burglar; they pull off a few key robberies, just to demoralize the bad guys (and of course gain some booty) even before they 'officially' arrive and check-in (covertly of course) with the young black couple. Kidd and LuEllen have the advantage of master hacker Bobby breaking into any/all confidential databases to pull private info on the town council members they plan to bring down. Kidd and LuEllen arrive on a houseboat; Kidd's disguise is true and easy to maintain (he really is a painter; one of the council members has one of his paintings) and he really does enjoy sketching scenes and capturing the light. LuEllen wears a crystal necklace and owns a supposedly magical crystal ball - since Bobby's research told them the town mayor is superstitious. Between the rigged crystal ball and Kidd's tarot readings, they fool the mayor very well. The most dangerous thug they never fool is Duane Hill, the dogcatcher. In all his appearances in the story he's violent, cruel, vicious (you've been warned). Kidd and LuEllen mostly pull it off, but of course there must be hiccups to add suspense...
—Susan

This is a transition novel, written at a point where the technology was not so old and established that the author could just mention it in passing and assume the reader would know what it was and how it worked, but also at the moment that the technology was so new that there was a kind of excitement about all that new potential in a future with computers in every house! The result is a book that I read with a happy feeling of nostalgia for the days of dial-up bulletin boards and dos-based pine mail, and about ten years of knowledge that I never thought I would need again. Happily I was wrong. This is a very good book, and the suspense story is a little shopworn and predictable, but the telling and the characters carry it off with real style. This book has a ton of pages, but every one was a pleasure to read. I will however point to one huge error in the blocking, just because I was so happy to have found ONE error in a book with a lot of complicated action. In the scene where they are breaking into city hall by way of the roof, they are trapped at one point by a door that is blocked on the other side by a filing cabinet. They get past this problem by pulling the hinge pins and removing the door. Problem is, the door opened into the other room, so the hinges were on the far side of the door from them. Ooooops. Oh well. a really fun novel.
—Alger

This is the second book in the Kidd and LuEllen series by John Sandford. I was disappointed in this book, the story was weak and the characters not particularly believable. But worse than that, I suppose my personal morality worked against my opinion of this story. Kidd and LuEllen are criminals - and although the book tries to make them into (almost) "good guys" they remain thieves whose actions lead to the deaths of 5 people. They take an "ends justify the means" attitude and rationalize their behavior - even though all they have done is replace a crooked, racist white city government with a potentially crooked, racist black city government. Sure the town was awful when the story began, and it is easy to say that any change is for the better, but there were legal channels they should have taken, rather than burglary, theft and blackmail.
—Bruce Snell

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