John Sandford: The Fool's Run (UK 2020)

From the Publisher:
The ultimate con game thriller from the internationally bestselling master of suspense, John Sandford
As much as computer savvy Kidd loves to paint, it doesn't pay the bills. But freelance hacking does. So, when a tech company offers him millions to take down its competition for a major government contract, he jumps at the chance.

The potential risks are as significant as the rewards; he could face decades in prison should he fail. As Kidd begins to discover that computer fraud is child's play compared with the defence industry's Machiavellian games, he starts to realise quite how much trouble he may have gotten himself into...

The Fool's Run is not only the first novel featuring Kidd, but it marks the debut of John Sandford as one of the world's premier thriller writers.

John Sandford: The Fool's Run. Simon & Schuster, ISBN: 9781471182167 (September, 2020), eBook, 4.07 MB (ca. 400 p.), £4.99.

John Sandford: The Fool's Run (USA 1996)

From the Publisher:
AN EXPLOSIVE NOVEL OF CORPORATE CON GAMES... FROM THE BESTSELLING MASTER OF SUSPENSE
Sandford has always known how to twist his readers into knots," said the Chicago Tribune of the New York Times bestselling author: His highly acclaimed Prey novels delivered "grip-you-by-the throat chills" (Houston Chronicle). And with his smash bestseller The Empress File, Sandford gave suspense an ingenious twist and took readers into the minds of two irresistible con artists plotting the ultimate sting. Now, Kidd and LuEllen return in...

THE FOOLS RUN

This time, their playing field is on the cutting edge of high-tech corporate warfare. Kidd, the computer whiz, and LuEllen, the thief, are hired by a defense industry corporation to destroy its business rival through computer sabotage and espionage. If Kidd and LuEllen can pull it off, they'll reap millions of dollars. One mistake, and they could spend the rest of their lives in prison. Everything goes according to plan as the technological takedown unfolds. But their string of successes turns into a noose when the ultimate con artists get conned...

John Sandford: The Fool's Run. Berkley Books, ISBN: 0425155722 (December, 1996), 352 p., $6.99.

John Camp: The Fool's Run (USA 1989)

From the Publisher:
"Past, wild, clever and fun. Camp gives us a hero who's impossible to resist. the Travis MeGee of microchips. The Fool's Run is a treat, from the first byte to the last." -- Carl Hiaasen

Kidd has three main occupations: he's a pretty good painter, a serious tarot reader and a genius with computers. Fortunately, one of them pays the rent. He sells his computer skills to politicians, businessmen, anyone -- as long as the price is right and the action isn't so illegal it risks bringing trouble into his carefully ordered life.

Now he is contacted by the billionaire owner of Anshiser Aviation. A corporate spy has stolen plans for a revolutionary targeting system for fighter planes and sold them to rival Whitemark. Anshiser wants Kidd to wreak havoc on the Whitemark computers, to delay them long enough for Anshiser's system to reach the marketplace first. The gamble is greater than Kidd has ever accepted -- but then, so is the money.

Kidd likes to work alone: no leaks, no feuds, no double crosses. But this time he's got a team. There's LuEllen, a cat burglar addicted to danger (among other things); and Dace, a down-and-out journalist who'll do anything for a story that would revive his career; and sent to monitor their work is Maggie Kahn, Anshiser's beautiful - and ruthless - assistant. They dig in for battle, as Kidd tries to stay one step ahead of Whitemark, the feds, and the two mysterious characters watching him from a green van. One night he does a tarot reading: "I got the Seven of Swords overlaying the Emperor in a crucial position. Later, I knew what it meant. But then it was too late."

John Camp has written a unique thriller, absolutely authentic and startlingly original. He stands in that great tradition of storytellers, the kind who seize your imagination from the first page and don't let you go.

Unrelenting, unpredictable, The Fools Run is unforgettable.

John Camp: The Fool's Run. A Novel. Henry Holt, ISBN: 0805009906 (August, 1989), 254 p., $14.95.