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The Boiler Plot
THE BOILER PLOT is about how the media's 'next big thing' is really a scam that abuses the presumed anonymity of the internet.
Alex Sanderson is young, isolated, and hungry for success in a business dominated by men. She's an American technology PR agent who came all the way to London to work with the best media in the world, when she's handpicked to hype Avadar, a 'Google killer,' in the press.
The hype machine is cranking. Alex starts getting in with powerful figures in Westminster. But some things about Avadar don't add up. It's creepy—a human-like hologram that lives with you—and its creators are swimming in cash; hardly a typical start-up. Noah Stein, wily, celebrated investigative journalist, starts asking questions: where do they get their funding? Why the Middle Eastern HQ?
The world's economy crashes down on Canary Wharf, and Alex's relationships crash along with it. But Noah may be a saviour. They travel to Abu Dhabi, risking their safety to learn what's been lost in the quest for the latest news scoops, and Alex tries to extricate herself from a trap she, in part, has laid.
THE BOILER PLOT is a suspense novel about a society weakened by its dependence on the internet, and a media blinded by its hunger for sensation. An assertive female narrator provides an inside view of London's alluring but cutthroat media technology scene.
Alex Sanderson is young, isolated, and hungry for success in a business dominated by men. She's an American technology PR agent who came all the way to London to work with the best media in the world, when she's handpicked to hype Avadar, a 'Google killer,' in the press.
The hype machine is cranking. Alex starts getting in with powerful figures in Westminster. But some things about Avadar don't add up. It's creepy—a human-like hologram that lives with you—and its creators are swimming in cash; hardly a typical start-up. Noah Stein, wily, celebrated investigative journalist, starts asking questions: where do they get their funding? Why the Middle Eastern HQ?
The world's economy crashes down on Canary Wharf, and Alex's relationships crash along with it. But Noah may be a saviour. They travel to Abu Dhabi, risking their safety to learn what's been lost in the quest for the latest news scoops, and Alex tries to extricate herself from a trap she, in part, has laid.
THE BOILER PLOT is a suspense novel about a society weakened by its dependence on the internet, and a media blinded by its hunger for sensation. An assertive female narrator provides an inside view of London's alluring but cutthroat media technology scene.
309 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 28, 2012
About the author
Emily McDaid
2 books4 followersOriginally from Upstate NY, Emily McDaid began a career in technology PR in Boston and then unexpectedly found love across the Atlantic. Now married, with two children, and a dual UK and US resident, the transatlantic experience has formed the foundation for her writing. She currently lives in Boston with her family. In addition to writing, she owns a small PR business, and her hobbies include yoga, running and pretending to be a dinosaur.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 3, 2012
Grade: B+
L/C Ratio: 30/70
(This means I estimate the author devoted 30% of her effort to creating a literary work of art and 70% of her effort to creating a commercial bestseller.)
Thematic Breakdown:
30% - Suspense thriller
25% - Technology
20% - PR industry
15% - Romance
10% - London
The opening pages of The Boiler Plot reveal exactly where the novel's main characters will end up at the conclusion, yet this prologue is far from a plot spoiler. In fact, having a vague sense of where the story is headed actually creates more suspense and gives the thrills some serious weight.
McDaid's female protagonist, Alex, is a rising star in the London PR world who gets tasked with representing a technology company that is both successful and suspicious. As a literary character, Alex has just the right amount of introspection to keep the reader involved without bogging down the pace of the plot.
Revelations arrive in a flood during the final act of The Boiler Plot, but McDaid does a solid job of weaving in answers through both dialogue and exposition. The novel's PR angle separates it from other tech thrillers and provides for some fascinating moral dilemmas.
Noteworthy Quote:
It was a thin line, and who was there to judge where that line lay? But within us, somewhere, we knew. We all knew.
L/C Ratio: 30/70
(This means I estimate the author devoted 30% of her effort to creating a literary work of art and 70% of her effort to creating a commercial bestseller.)
Thematic Breakdown:
30% - Suspense thriller
25% - Technology
20% - PR industry
15% - Romance
10% - London
The opening pages of The Boiler Plot reveal exactly where the novel's main characters will end up at the conclusion, yet this prologue is far from a plot spoiler. In fact, having a vague sense of where the story is headed actually creates more suspense and gives the thrills some serious weight.
McDaid's female protagonist, Alex, is a rising star in the London PR world who gets tasked with representing a technology company that is both successful and suspicious. As a literary character, Alex has just the right amount of introspection to keep the reader involved without bogging down the pace of the plot.
Revelations arrive in a flood during the final act of The Boiler Plot, but McDaid does a solid job of weaving in answers through both dialogue and exposition. The novel's PR angle separates it from other tech thrillers and provides for some fascinating moral dilemmas.
Noteworthy Quote:
It was a thin line, and who was there to judge where that line lay? But within us, somewhere, we knew. We all knew.
August 20, 2012
I'd love if you'd give my book a try!
December 6, 2012
Excerpt from my full blog review:
If Oliver Stone were twenty-five years younger, instead of shooting Wall Street (1987) on film, he might do as well digitally adapting The Boiler Plot (2012) for Hollywood, or at least Pinewood. Because while the technology of the media agents Stone likes to target may have improved how the times are recorded, the song of human frailty remains the same. Or, as Gordon Gekko might say: "Greed is [virtually] good."
In U.S. author Emily McDaid's debut novel--equally classifiable as thriller/suspense, tech-noir, or social criticism, the setting is modern east-London. The first-person narrative of heroine Alex Sanderson commences in media res, her reportage nearly buried amid the throng of an oppressive courtroom. Crimes have been committed, millions swindled out of hundreds of millions in cyber-cash. Some of the perpetrators have escaped, but others stand at the bar of justice, awaiting sentence. Outside, "the buildings were popping up like a line of dominos." An apt conceit, and nice bit of foreshadowing. This e-book in no way resembles one's average paperback. Alex's voice is one of a young, professional Public Relations account manager, on her way up (a la Bud Fox,) and she knows how to turn a phrase that haunts the later narrative. In fact, a director darker than Stone--Christopher Nolan, perhaps-- could easily frame the story as a noir procedural, with a world-weary voice from the future recounting the inevitable slide of events toward their sordid denouement. The bulk of the story demands, How did it all come to this? And of course, like any novel worth one's patience, The Boiler Plot raises the question to a more universal level. . .
Read the entire review:
http://clothosloom.wordpress.com/2012...
If Oliver Stone were twenty-five years younger, instead of shooting Wall Street (1987) on film, he might do as well digitally adapting The Boiler Plot (2012) for Hollywood, or at least Pinewood. Because while the technology of the media agents Stone likes to target may have improved how the times are recorded, the song of human frailty remains the same. Or, as Gordon Gekko might say: "Greed is [virtually] good."
In U.S. author Emily McDaid's debut novel--equally classifiable as thriller/suspense, tech-noir, or social criticism, the setting is modern east-London. The first-person narrative of heroine Alex Sanderson commences in media res, her reportage nearly buried amid the throng of an oppressive courtroom. Crimes have been committed, millions swindled out of hundreds of millions in cyber-cash. Some of the perpetrators have escaped, but others stand at the bar of justice, awaiting sentence. Outside, "the buildings were popping up like a line of dominos." An apt conceit, and nice bit of foreshadowing. This e-book in no way resembles one's average paperback. Alex's voice is one of a young, professional Public Relations account manager, on her way up (a la Bud Fox,) and she knows how to turn a phrase that haunts the later narrative. In fact, a director darker than Stone--Christopher Nolan, perhaps-- could easily frame the story as a noir procedural, with a world-weary voice from the future recounting the inevitable slide of events toward their sordid denouement. The bulk of the story demands, How did it all come to this? And of course, like any novel worth one's patience, The Boiler Plot raises the question to a more universal level. . .
Read the entire review:
http://clothosloom.wordpress.com/2012...
March 23, 2013
The Boiler Plot is a white collar crime thriller and begins at a relatively slow pace and doesn't really pick up until you get 30% into the book. However when it gets going it's worth the perseverance. McDaid shows she know London very well as well as the world of technology PR.
The opening is quite grabbing at set in a court but that's as close as we get to legal court scenes in the book. I loved the thrilling aspect of this book and have to sa it did grab me but an editor and proof reader could have made it a much better read for me. I'm loathed to give it any less than 4 stars as I did find the premise intriguing the characterisation and scene setting was wonderful. The ending felt like a beginning for me grabbing thrillers? I would not be adverse to reading a sequel featuring Alex, our female protagonist with guts.
A refreshing change from guts and gore, this white collar crime thriller is with a read once you get into it.
The opening is quite grabbing at set in a court but that's as close as we get to legal court scenes in the book. I loved the thrilling aspect of this book and have to sa it did grab me but an editor and proof reader could have made it a much better read for me. I'm loathed to give it any less than 4 stars as I did find the premise intriguing the characterisation and scene setting was wonderful. The ending felt like a beginning for me grabbing thrillers? I would not be adverse to reading a sequel featuring Alex, our female protagonist with guts.
A refreshing change from guts and gore, this white collar crime thriller is with a read once you get into it.
February 28, 2013
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. It brought to mind what I imagine a partial prequel to Girl with a Dragon Tattoo (following Blomkvist's story) would have looked like. The story begins at the end, in a courtroom during the sentencing portion of a trial. The story then jumps back a year to explain how the protagonist -- a young, female, ex-pat PR agent living in London -- arrived there. I'm not always a fan of that device, but it actually worked here -- the preview was neither too revealing nor too cryptic, and I didn't feel the end unraveled too quickly or failed to tie the story up. On the whole, it's not brilliant literature but it's a good thriller and well-enough written not to distract from the plot.
October 10, 2012
This book was interesting because in our technology obsessed world plenty of people will stand in line to own the next new thing. Alex Sanderson has been selected to promote a new search engine that will rival Google. It consists of a hologram that will observe the user and tailor search results to that person's wants and needs. But Alex's brief success is turned around when she finds out she was been the victim of a scam.
July 19, 2016
I was working on a company very similar to the one at the centre of this plot as I read this, and that made it more compelling and more ridiculous in equal measures. It's a good read, good insight into the worlds of PR and startups. If you work in either of these worlds it'll provide some light relief and will be an easy page-turner for you. The description promises more on gender issues than is delivered in the book, but the story worked without that.
April 4, 2013
Thoroughly enjoyed it..
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews