The Cryptographer

by Tobias Hill

Book Overview

John Law is a man full of secrets. People call him the Cryptographer, or the Codebreaker. He is mysterious and charming, the world's first quadrillionaire. When tax inspector Anna Moore is assigned... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0571218369
• ISBN13: 9780571218363
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Worth reading for the poetic prose alone

I have just finished this book and have immediately begun rereading it for the pure enjoyment of Hill's poetic descriptions of even relatively mundane situations, objects, experiences. I hope, on the second read, to fully comprehend the story. That I didn't "get it" on the first read bothers me not at all; nor if I never "get it". If you enjoy someone using the English language with rare skill, give it a try. You will know after the first page whether it's for you or not. I find it interesting that another book whose ending I never "got", even after a second, very enjoyable reading, also involved cryptography, i.e., Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. It's an entirely different kind of book but equally brilliant. FWIW: I rarely read books twice.

Good Premise

Hard to believe that I just read a romance novel, but this one had a title and storyline that grabbed my attention. The girl Anna falls for a wealthy (and married) cryptologist whose children and work prove far more important than the money he's earned. Ultimately, the cryptographer must make a sacrafice and Anna must make a decision on whether she can truly trust the man she admires. The story is suspenseful and told in smooth and rapid style that had me finishing the book in one sitting aboard plane from Amsterdam to Capetown.

A novel about greed, generosity and love

Anna Moore is a thirty-six year old tax inspector living in London in the year 2021. As she states at the beginning of the story her job is to measure the worth of people. Her new assignment is to investigate the world's first quadrillionaire, John Law, also known as the Cryptographer because he invented a cashless currency called Soft Gold which is protected by an inviolable code. Soon Ann meets the man and confronts him with evidence of false accounting but John Law readily accepts to repay the revenue what he owes them. From then on Anna is more and more fascinated by the man, by his great aura, by his mysterious mansion hidden behind a great wall and by his wife and two children. As Soft Gold is heading towards disaster and John Law's empire is about to crumble, Anna's feelings for him remain genuinely sincere because they are much less liable to sudden shift than the greatest fortune on earth.

Wonderful read

I loved this book. I loved the subtle romance and the determination of the chief characters. This was the first of Hill's books I'd read (my Mum had recommended it highly - neither of us could put it down) and I was so impressed I immediately went out to read another. It turned out to have a similar plot - but that didn't detract from this wonderful read. I highly recommend it.