Cold Eyes

Joanne Gravitz #1

by Romina Wilcox

A prominent Stanford researcher, Dr. Brett Russell, is found dead the morning he is scheduled to reveal his medical breakthrough to a worldwide conference in San Jose. The night of his murder, his computer which contains years of confidential research is invaded by a cyber hacker and all traces of activities are wiped clean. Joanne Gravitz, a young software developer for OmegaSoft is hired to assist the FBI in tracing the identity of the murderous database hacker. Her first day on the job creates continuous fear when the hacker learns of her involvement and makes her his next prey.

300 pages, Hardcover

First published April 5, 2007

About the author

Romina Wilcox has worked in Silicon Valley for the past seventeen years, giving her a unique understanding of corporate life in semiconductor industry, which she cleverly infuses into her writing. Pinkslipped is her fourth novel, following Cold Eyes, The Calendar, and The P.I.G. Mantras.

Reviews

[Elle M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great debut novel from Romina Wilcox. I truly enjoy reading this book. Of course, I am all too familiar witht he places mentioned, but I like the setting. Everything seems real. The characters seems real, the plot is realistic. I particularly like the heroin, Joanne Gravitz. I wish I have her job. Great thriller. I wish I wrote it.

[Theresa Leone Davidson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Of the hundreds (if not thousands) of books I have read in my lifetime, Cold Eyes is not the worst. OK, one should always try to think of something positive to say, and that's it: Cold Eyes isn't the WORST. Unfortunately, it is in the top ten of the worst I've read. It was published by Xlibris, a self publishing operation, which is fine, and because of that, I can even understand the fact that editing would not be up to par. However, that does not excuse repeated errors, which belong to the author, who has clearly not mastered English. For example, in the story, there are a lot of prominent people as characters, and the author repeatedly writes 'the renown Doctor So and So,' instead of 'renowned,' and 'So and so shuttered at the prospect,' instead of 'shuddered.' There's missing punctuation, timelines that don't make sense, and other assorted mistakes a good editor might have corrected. Nevertheless, all of this could be overlooked if there was a story here, or some suspense, or at least believable characters. But all of that is absent from the novel, apparently the only one Wilcox has written (thank goodness for small favors). The dialogue is wooden and unbelievable, the characters ridiculous and unsympathetic, and the big twist at the end could be figured out halfway through the story by a sixth grader. The protagonist, who is supposed to be highly intelligent, as well as gorgeous, is constantly awash in self-doubt, something I find really annoying, but even more troubling is the author's stereotypes: there is a female physician in the cast of characters but the other doctors, all male, treat the nurses, all female, in disturbing fashion; for example, one surgeon actually pinches the cheek of a nurse and says something condescending to her, all to her delight. From personal experience, I know this is ridiculous. My father in law was a surgeon and my mother in law a nurse from the 1940s through the 1970s, long before there were any sexual harrassment laws, and they would have scoffed at the idea that any of their peers, especially today, would have been so bubble headed. Still, the author portrays secretaries in an even worse light: gold digging, air headed, and self absorbed. I suppose for Wilcox, graduating from a no-name college and acquiring a 'certificate' in computer programming gives one license to look down on others. Awful. Nothing redeeming about this one.

[Ricca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cold Eyes is one of the best debut novels I’ve read. Its plot is unique, the characters are engaging, and the story is realistic (perhaps working at a semiconductor for a number of years has to do with the later conclusion.)
The story is about a researcher who discovered a medical breakthrough. At the time he is about to reveal his discovery, his body is found somewhere in the California shore (dead!). It is also discovered that the server where he kept his voluminous amount of research is hacked. Later, his mourning wife is kidnapped, all the while, their eldest daughter is preparing for her wedding. The protagonist, Joanne Gravitz, is hired by the FBI due to her creation of a cyber-fighting crime software called Cold Eyes. She has personal weaknesses which of course why I enjoyed the story. (Had she been a too-good-to-be-true, wonder woman who can solve everything in a nick of time, then that won’t be realistic. I was eager to find out how she is going to solve the problems thrust upon her. ) During her investigation, the location of the hacker points to the mansion of surgeon who saved her life lives and whom she is falling in love. I won’t go on and on about the story but I really enjoyed the intricacy of the plot and how each characters crosses path. Their inner conflict and the way they behave and speak make them believable characters. In fact, as I read the story the Director kept reminding me of someone I know—his lingo, his mannerism, etc.
Another worth mentioning is that this book is not bog down by technical lingo as on other cyber thrillers I have read. It’s easy to follow and it was a great escape for me during the Labor weekend.
If you enjoy Joseph Finder, Harlan Coben, Michael Connelly (and many other known thriller authors) you’ll enjoy Romina Wilcox’s Cold Eyes. I look for more of this promising author.

[Linda (NOT RECEIVING NOTIFICATIONS) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since there is a very good description of the book that is listed above I'll refrain from going into the details of the story. Instead I'll tell you why I gave the book five stars. Honestly, the story earned it. Some will say the novel is a bit slow in parts but Ms. Wilcox packs so much information into the pages you need to take your time reading the story. Light on romance, read the book for the suspense and mystery or if you are looking for a new author.

Even if you include the author's background you can tell the amount of research that went into writing this novel is evident throughout the book. Ms. Wilcox excels in the area of character development. She gives the reader delicious details as to why her characters do, well, what they do. Their thoughts make sense. The dialogue is realistic and suspense was maintained throughout the novel.

Did I think I knew who the killer was? Yes. Did I want to cheat and read the ending before I finished the story? Yes....but I didn't. There are other reasons it is a five star book; I was drawn in, the story was believable. I cared about what happened to the characters. Ms. Wilcox had enough twists within the story to entertain me and the action scenes were easy to follow. The main characters were not perfect but that made them appear more human and realistic.

I can recommend COLD EYES to anyone who enjoys suspense, mysteries, contemporary fiction, wants to try a different author -OR- just wants to read a satisfying tale that will keep you on edge for a few days. I look forward to more stories from Ms. Wilcox.

[Beckie · Rating 5 out of 5]

so i just finished reading a book called 'cold eyes' by romina wilcox. the author approached me via email through amazon.com and sent me a copy to review if i'd like...what a neat way to get people to read your book...i think it's great for new authors to be able to partner with amazon to get a database of readers who would be interested in their book. this is the review i wrote at amazon:
Wow. This book will appeal to fans of techno-thrillers as well as murder-mysteries. The characters are very well-developed and their actions will keep you guessing until the very end. Through Romina's excellent descriptions, I learned alot about the the way-of-life in Silicon Valley, the FBI, and the latest technology. I can tell that she did a lot of research and pulled information from her own work experience while writing this book. She is an outstanding author and I hope that she is already working on her next book. COLD EYES would make an excellent movie...it would be awesome if someone picked it up and adapted it for the big screen.
this was another book that i could just not put down. i am going to share this book with a couple of people who enjoy this kind of writing as i know they will like COLD EYES, too.

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is a pretty good suspence book, with alot of twists and turns. I like Romina as a new author.