The Bombmaker by Stephen Leather... =)

BOOOOMMM!!!! This book is filled with non-stop suspense! Once I started it, I just couldn't put the book down! (which made me lose an hour of sleep! :@) This book is easy to start and easy to finish. Light-reading basically... =D It took be about an hour to finish the book.
What is this book about? It's about a lady, Andrea Hayes, IRA's most brilliant bombmaker. But, one of her bombs when horrifyingly wrong, and 4 children perished, and that's when she gave it all up. She started a whole new life, her true identity hidden from everyone, even from her husband and daughter, Katie. Life goes on as usual, until one day, their daughter is kidnapped from the house, and Andrea realizes that her pass has come back to haunt her. =D

But what fascinates me in this book is this technology called "Echelon". It has been around since the seventies. It involves the Americans, GCHQ, Australians, Canadians and New Zealand. Between the 5 countries, every single satellite, land line and undersea cable transmission is monitored. Every phone call, fax, telex and email in the world. Echelon can search through all transmissions looking for a particular word, or combinations of words. It can even search out voice prints. Amazing?

This "thing" is believed to be used by the Echelon.

Imagine that, every single thing we send out through text messages, calls, etc... are ALL MONITORED! Where is the privacy promised by the telcos? Hm... O.O Imagine what kind of info all people working there get. And, the problems it can cause.. BUT, think of all the crimes that can be solved too. Oh well, everything has it pros and cons, I guess...?

Book Rating: 7/10

Anyway, BOOM!