Rating: 
Summary: "I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave..."
Review: It probably won't spoil anybody's reading of this book to reveal that the massive supercomputer at the center of the story turns into a kind of HAL (from "2001: A Space Odyssey") at the end. It was pretty obvious from the start that this was where the story was headed.
Even without a surprise ending however the book was enjoyable. The author brings in quite a bit of learning -- pharmacology, psychological theories, knowledge structure, personality profiling -- and he will make you really THINK about the nature of attraction between two people. Like Grisham or Crichton the author manages to teach you quite a bit while entertaining you.
"Death Match" loses a star only for the rather far-fetched premise, and the conceit that there could be such a thing as a "perfect match" between any two inherently imperfect humans.
Rating:
Summary: Matchmaking mayhem
Review: Lincoln Child in his intriguing new novel "Death Match" again reveals his fascination with plots revolving around computerization.Eden Inc., a huge corporation headquartered in Manhattan is the brainchild of reclusive, socially inept yet brilliant computer engineer Richard Silver. Silver pioneered a successful foray into the field of artificial intelligence when he created his computer network known as "Liza". Liza's primary function is high tech matchmaking. For a fee of $25,000 an applicant would be subjected to an exhaustive, physical, psychological and mental analysis. This would be used to create an avatar, in effect the essence of the individual. This could be matched up with others to find a guaranteed suitable mate. The service provided by Eden had been wildly successful until a perfectly matched couple called a supercouple, The Thorpes are found to have committed double suicide in their Flagstaff home. Silver immediately implores his corporate staff to bring in former FBI forensic psychologist and profiler Dr. Christopher Lash to find out what happened. Soon after Lash's investigation starts another one of the six supercouples also turn up dead. Lash with assistance from Eden security chief Tara Stapleton proceed to plod through a morass of computer files to unravel this perplexing problem. Although the ending is somewhat predictable Child holds your interest throughout. He does at times get bogged down in computer jargon but the psychoanalysis presented is quite interesting. I still feel however, that collaboration with Douglas Preston produces a superior product.
Rating: 
Summary: A Shame
Review: Lincoln Child needs to be very ashamed of himself for this one. It begins so promising. A psychologist is brought in to research a double suicide. The couple was seemingly perfect: wealthy, intelligent, incredibly happy together, and with a newborn baby. Why had this couple self-destructed? The company bringing him in is Eden, Inc, a matchmaking service. Founded by reclusive Richard Silver, the company is famous for matching couples that are nearly perfect for each other, with wild success. This couple was a so-called "supercouple," one that was indeed a perfect match. It begins strong and fluid, and is quite enjoyable. It feels different, as the company isn't dark, sinister and shadowy. They have some aspects of your standard dark, sinister and shadowy companies, but none of the characteristics. In fact it's refreshingly honest and benevolent. So what changes? Well, the company is based on an incredible computer. This computer, named Liza, is a learning machine capable of passing the Turing Test. That is, the AI can pass for human. It learns, evolves, and adapts. It even teaches itself. Gee, have you heard this one before? *Spoilers*
Ok, so you have a smart machine. You read this and your first thought was "did it have something to do with the suicides? Was it acting on its own without people realizing?" Then you think, "No, can't be. This book is refreshingly different. Lincoln Child has done this before, he won't be that lazy. Utopia wasn't a lazy book, aside from Wingnut. The books with Preston aren't lazy books. No way will he be lazy." Sorry, folks, he's lazy, uninspired, and retells a story you've read a few thousand times before. /end spoilers. I give the book three stars because it begins so well. Somewhere between pages 200 and 260 you'll have the entire ending figured out, though. Every tiny twist, every little detail - you'll know it all. With an extra 100 pages left (the book is a bit thin), well, I'm sorry to say you won't care. You already know the ending, so you won't want to read it all that carefully. Even worse, many of the final pages get bogged down with technical aspects you don't care much about, either. I've done extensive programming in Assembly and even found myself skimming over his discussions on machine language and registers. I feel bad for the non-technically inclined, they'll be utterly lost just as the conclusion is playing out. Not that it matters, I'm sure they figured the ending out long before and are just reading to get it over with, hoping they are somehow surprised. A worthy first 200 pages, a sad final 250 pages. Two and a half star book, at best. I rounded up out of respect for the author, I suppose, but even then I feel this should only be getting one star for being so stale, predictable, and ten or fifteen years too late.
Rating:
Summary: Big Brother taken to the limit!
Review: This book goes to show you the dangers of the information age where there is so much information about you available that anyone with the knowhow and the desire could know just about everything about you and with a few tweaks, can change your entire history. It also raises some interesting concepts about love relationships. It seems everyone is searching for a conceptualized "perfect" mate that they have in their mind, which is probably someone made up of ideas garnered from Hollywood and other such sources. In reality, the perfect mate is someone you never really pictured. You just know them when you meet them.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book about a company that has figured out that with enough information about a person (historic, physical, mental) you can use computer simulations to find the perfect mate. The author introduces a lot of information about psychological testing (I assume it is all correct) and presents everything in terms that the simplest layman can understand.
I enjoyed this book slightly more than the author's previous work Utopia, which was pretty good in its own right.
Rating:
Summary: Great start, great middle, okay finish
Review: This book started out in a way that I could not put it down. It was a very interesting and well written beginning. Unfortunately, the narrative broke down a bit towards the end. I was able to predict what was happening about 100 pages before everything was explained. To me this lessens the quality of the book.
However, much of the information on psychology given in the book was absolutely fascinating since I do not have any sort of background in it.
Rating:
Summary: A fun book- perfect for a day at the beach
Review: UTOPIA, Lincoln Child's only novel that he authored alone concerned an imaginary theme park- the ultimate in technology. In effect, it is a warning of what can happen when technology goes unchecked. It is a wildly suspenseful book and also provides some key insights into the thought, creation and running of a theme park. Now, with his second solo authored novel, he explores another imaginary technology and what can happen if human intervention goes too far.
Christopher Lash is a former FBI forensic psychologist with a busy private practice in New York. He is hired as a special consultant by Eden, a company that specializes in dating services. However, not just any dating service. For a $25,000 fee, the client is put through a barrage of physical, psychological and emotional testing. The data is put into a super computer and a match would be made from the thousands of other applicants. Their success rate is near perfect as most couples match upwards of 98%. However, Lash is asked to look into the double suicide of a perfect 100% match. There does not appear to be precursors that would indicate why the couple decided to commit suicide. Things heat up considerably when the second perfect match turns up dead from another double suicide. Lash must get to the bottom of this before more couples turn up dead.
DEATH MATCH is another fun and exciting read. The positives of this novel include the pacing which is relentless and the plot which is imaginative. Characters, though not filled with great depth, are quite serviceable for this type of an entertainment. The major negative is the needless depth and endless description of the technology. Page after page of psychological testing parameters are covered as is the computer technology used to run the company. This information could and should have been greatly edited. However, by skimming these sections, the reader will move quickly through to the exciting climax and somewhat predictable conclusion. Fun for a day at the beach.
Rating:
Summary: The brave new world of love.
Review: Would you pay $25,000 and undergo a battery of rigorous physical and psychological tests to meet the man or woman of your dreams? In Lincoln Child's new thriller, "Death Match," the eager clients of a company called Eden Incorporated are happy to do so. Unfortunately, a series of unexplained suicides among some of Eden's most well-matched pairs, known as "supercouples," has begun to worry the company's executives. They bring in Christopher Lash, a forensic psychologist who once worked with the FBI, to find out why and how these men and women died. Were these deaths just bizarre coincidences or is something more sinister going on? "Death Match" is an intriguing thriller that touches on some contemporary themes, such as computer matchmaking, the lack of privacy in the age of the Internet, and the synergy between our government and large corporations. As Lash studies the deaths of these "perfect" couples, he learns that they were indeed happy in every way, with no psychological disorders that would predispose them to suicide. As Lash digs deeper, he makes some horrifying discoveries, and in the process, he places both his reputation and his life in danger. Child's writing is fast-paced and lively, and the author includes fascinating details about psychological testing and artificial intelligence. He also explores the difficulty that modern men and women have in finding an appropriate mate, and why they turn to computer dating services to solve their problems. Can a sophisticated computer come up with a foolproof way to bring the right people together, or is the attraction between individuals too indefinable to be captured by computer software? There are aspects of this novel that are far-fetched, and many readers will guess where the book is heading way before the denouement. However, the plot still plays out with sufficient suspense and flair to make "Death Match" a timely and engrossing thriller.
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