It simply is another tool of storytelling for me. SILVERMAN: Despite all these modern-day complications, Deaver says he's still abiding by a rule he set for himself 40 books ago - frighten readers by using the things they deal with every day.ĭEAVER: The high-tech elements of the book are really no different from traditional police work, a car chase scene. OK, smart products from household lights all the way up to the dangerous ones our boy is using are embedded with wireless connectivity circuits. He does that in the voice of the nerd helping the detectives.ĭEAVER: (Reading) OK, you want to know about the Internet of things. Unlike pulling a trigger, which most of us understand, hacking home appliances is a bit complicated, so Deaver occasionally has to stop mid-story to explain to readers what's up. In it, his villain, a man named Vernon Griffith, runs around New York City doing dirty digital deeds like hacking into the controls of an escalator. His detective story 'The Steel Kiss' came out this year. JEFFERY DEAVER: My job really is to scare the socks off my readers. Why should murderers use a gun when they can tamper with a toaster, fiddle with a freezer or pose a threat to a thermometer? That's because writers are putting technology into their plots.

As long as it's a crime fiction, I'm happy.īut lately, I can't escape. It's a lot of work to keep up with the tech world, so when the day's over, I look for an escape. NPR's Art Silverman realized that when he picked up some of the new books coming into our office.ĪRT SILVERMAN, BYLINE: Each week, I produce this All Tech Considered segment. For writers of crime fiction, those vulnerabilities in the Internet of things present an opportunity.

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