The Fear Index
OCLC 741542228 | |
The Fear Index is a 2011 novel by British author
Plot
The story begins as
The police inspector approaches Hoffmann's wife Gabrielle at her art gallery, informing her that Hoffmann suffered a nervous breakdown while at CERN. When Gabrielle confronts Hoffmann on the matter, he brushes it off. When all of Gabrielle's artwork is sold to an anonymous collector, Gabrielle suspects that Hoffmann is behind it and storms off. At the hedge fund, Hoffmann and Quarry succeed in raising a massive investment. Hoffmann also tracks down his assailant, Karp, to a hotel room where the man attacks him. When Karp's neck breaks in the struggle, Hoffmann falsifies the crime scene to make it look like a suicide. Forensics inform Leclerc, who concludes that Karp was killed by Hoffmann.
At the hedge fund, VIXAL begins assuming a level of risk considered unsustainable by the human staff, and Quarry fires Rajamani for insubordination. Hoffmann discovers that a hacker has stolen his medical records, and that someone posed as him to place surveillance cameras all over his office and home. Quarry discovers that the deed to the building they rent is in Hoffmann's name, and that a warehouse deep in an industrial sector is also owned by Hoffmann. Hoffmann vows to close VIXAL once and for all, as well as to leave the company in the hands of Quarry. Rajamani confronts the two and threatens to report the company's illegal activities, then leaves. Hoffmann chases after him, but after plunging down a lift shaft, he deduces that VIXAL's artificial intelligence has become hostile. He rushes to destroy the warehouse containing unauthorised hardware.
Leclerc finds Rajamani's corpse, further implicating Hoffmann as a murderer. Hoffmann buys 100 litres of petrol, with the plan of killing himself and taking VIXAL with him. As the
Characters
- Dr. Alexander J. Hoffmann - a physicist and hedge fund owner
- Hugo Quarry - CEO of Hoffman's hedge fund
- Gabrielle Hoffmann - an art gallery owner
- Jean Claude Leclerc - police inspector
- VIXAL-4 - a program utilizing Hoffman's algorithms
Reception
Writing in
Adaptations
On 23 August 2011, it was announced that Robert Harris had written a screenplay adaptation of the novel, for a film that was to have been directed by
References
- ^ The Fear Index by Robert Harris – review The Guardian Retrieved on 10 December 2011
- ^ The Fear Index by Robert Harris – review Retrieved on 10 December 2011
- ^ The Fear Index: A day in the life of the death of capitalism The Daily Telegraph Retrieved on 10 December 2011
- TheGuardian.com.
- ^ White, Peter (5 February 2020). "'The Crown' Producer Left Bank Developing Adaptation Of Robert Harris' Financial Thriller 'The Fear Index' For Sky". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
- ^ Kanter, Jake (26 April 2021). "'The Fear Index': Josh Hartnett To Headline Sky's Adaptation Of Robert Harris' Financial Thriller". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
- TheGuardian.com. 10 February 2022.
External links
- The Fear Index title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database