The Enigma Factor (The Enigma Series Book 1)

In this debut techno-thriller, the first in a planned series, a hacker finds his life turned upside down as a mysterious company tries to recruit him. n nJacob Michaels, a hacker working as a tester for a New York information-security company called PT, Inc., is happy to be invited for a meeting at DEFCON, an annual hacker convention in Las Vegas. However, the invite comes in the form of an airline ticket with Jacob’s full name and address–information that he usually keeps concealed. It soon becomes clear that Jacob is under cyber-attack, as people start receiving emails he didn’t send, and even the keycard to his room gets rejected. n nBreakfield and Burkey’s novel is a thriller for the 21st century. Instead of drug or money mules, it features “information mules” who steal others’ codes and work for organizations such as Dteam, a Russian group that pilfers funds electronically. n nA complex thriller with a hacker-centric plot and polished technological descriptions that may attract new fans. n

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n nFrom Kirkus Reviews n nIn this debut techno-thriller, the first in a planned series, a hacker finds his life turned upside down as a mysterious company tries to recruit him. n nJacob Michaels, a hacker working as a tester for a New York information-security company called PT, Inc., is happy to be invited for a meeting at DEFCON, an annual hacker convention in Las Vegas. However, the invite comes in the form of an airline ticket with Jacob’s full name and address–information that he usually keeps concealed. It soon becomes clear that Jacob is under cyber-attack, as people start receiving emails he didn’t send, and even the keycard to his room gets rejected. n nBreakfield and Burkey’s novel is a thriller for the 21st century. Instead of drug or money mules, it features “information mules” who steal others’ codes and work for organizations such as Dteam, a Russian group that pilfers funds electronically. n nA complex thriller with a hacker-centric plot and polished technological descriptions that may attract new fans. n nReview 5-Star – Reviewed by Elise Towner for Readers’ Favorite n nThe Enigma Factor by Charles V Breakfield and Roxanne E Burkey is a very well written story about technology professionals and the financial organizations they are empowered to protect and serve with the utmost integrity. A quote from the book was extremely appealing to me, coming from a financial background myself: “Political powers come and go, but the financial well-being cannot afford to be corrupted.” I could not agree more with that statement. The main characters exhibit a rare “Robin Hood” mentality as the story of Jacob, Buzz, and Petra unraveled, leaving me cheering for technology geeks all over the globe, and especially for the career-oriented Jacob and his newly found love interest, Petra. Trust me, there is much more to this story than just the romance. The layout of this book alone is eye-catching and the programming language “10100101011010” and the chapter titles set the tone. n nI really enjoyed how the authors chronicled the meeting of two soul mates. A love story ensues with the accomplished genius Jacob and the lovely intelligent Petra. Their romance reminds me of “A Beautiful Mind,” but without the schizophrenia. Both equally yoked, Jacob and Petra share their knowledge and love for Information Technology in their respective roles when securing the assets of select upper echelons in the U.S. and their interests abroad. I was fascinated with the authors’ attention to detail while completely enthralled with reading The Enigma Factor, and look forward to exploring the rest of the Enigma series. I cannot say enough about this book. If you like stories that encompass history, adventure, with all the complexities of betrayal and intrigue faced by those who provide security for the financial sector, then you will enjoy this work. I would love to see this series made into a movie! Well done! n

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Breakfield and Burkey started writing non-fictional papers and books, but it wasn’t nearly as fun as writing fictional stories.They found it interesting to use the aspects of technology that people are incorporating into their daily lives more and more as a perfect way to create a good guy/bad guy story with elements of travel to the various places they have visited, either professionally and personally, humor, romance, intrigue,suspense, and a spirited way to remember people who have crossed paths with them. They love to talk about their stories with private and public book readings. Burkey is also conducting regular radio interviews with other authors,which is interesting. Her first interview was, wait for it, Breakfield. You can often find them at local book fairs or other family oriented events. n nThe original series is based on a family organization called R-Group. Recently they have spawned a subgroup that contains some of the original characters as the Cyber Assassins Technology Services (CATS) team. The authors have ideas for continuing the series in both of these tracks. They track the more than 150 characters on a spreadsheet, with a hidden avenue for the future coined The Enigma Chronicles tagged in some portions of the stories.Fan reviews seem to frequently suggest that these would make good television or movie stories, so the possibilities appear endless, just like their ideas for new stories. n nThey have completed book video trailers for each of the stories,which can be viewed on YouTube, Amazon’s Authors page, or on their website, enigmabookseries.com. Their website is routinely updated with new interviews, answers to readers’ questions, book trailers, and contests. You may also find it fascinating to check out the fun acronyms they create for the stories but summarize on their website. Reach out to them at Authors@EnigmaSeries.com, Twitter @EnigmaSeries, or Facebook @TheEnigmaSeries.