About the Frank Adversego Thriller Series
The Tales of Adversego thriller series is an outgrowth of several inspirations. The technical subject matter derives from my more than forty years of experience representing technology start up clients. Along the way, I’ve become intimately familiar with the types of folks that populate the technology ecosystem: entrepreneurs and career engineering employees, angel investors and venture capitalists, policy makers and regulators, idealists and lobbyists. That’s where my characters come from, as well as from the people I meet in the many out of the way places I travel to when I’m not at work.
Stylistically, I’m probably most indebted to Evelyn Waugh, a British author of the last century who was a master stylist and a brilliant executioner of social satire. When you read one of my books, you’ll meet colorful but credible characters whose aspirations and machinations serve to advance the plot and make reading fun. They’ll also be giving and taking the sort of jabs that their real life analogues so richly deserve but too infrequently get.
Finally, I’ve become very aware over the years of society’s penchant for sprinting mindlessly forward into the technology-based future with too little heed to the consequences of what it adopts. Technology in the age of Google, Apple and Meta is like candy: we want it, and we want it now. We’ll worry about the cavities later. But like tooth decay, by the time the damage has been done, it’s often too late. So take note: everything that appears in each of my books is technically accurate and really could happen. To an almost astonishing degree, many of the plot elements I concocted in my first book have already played out in real life. As for the second, the crowd of presidential candidates that followed its release speaks for itself. And if an enemy decided to follow the course of Frank’s nemesis in the third, life as we know it would be over.
What new cyber-disaster have I dreamed up for my latest book, titled The Argus Affair? Let’s just say that if we don’t constrain further developments in artificial intelligence, you might find out whether you read the book or not.
The fact that someone with a BA in history and no computer training can keep coming up with plots that experts confirm are technically possible is a sobering thought. Or, as prominent cybersecurity expert Bruce Schneier has observed, “Andy Updegrove’s Frank Adversego thrillers are realistic page-turners, making it clear that if you’re not worried about cybersecurity you’re not paying attention.”
As an attorney, I’ve worked with technology companies for more than forty years, including many of the organizations seeking to thwart cyber-attacks before they occur. As a high-tech lawyer, my only requirement during working hours is a reliable Internet connection. That allows my wife and I to live in the winter in Naples, Florida, and in the summer, on Vinalhaven, an island off the coast of Maine. In between, we divide our time between London and New York City. When I’m not writing or predicting the next cyber-disaster, I’m often roaming the back country of the American southwest in my Jeep, scouting out settings for my next book.
If you decide to give one of my books a try, I hope you enjoy it, rate the book where you bought it (or better yet review it), and tell your friends.
Interviews and Articles
ThirdCertainty.com: Novel Raises the Question of Whether Election Could be Hacked
Excerpt: So, are the polls being hacked now?
“I’m certainly not saying that Donald Trump is funding a hacking campaign,” Updegrove says. “But if The Donald is giving us the straight story when he claims that he’s come out on top in 73 consecutive polls, it makes you wonder. Has any candidate in the history of polling ever done that?”
International Business Times: Could the US Elections Really be Hacked?
Excerpt: With an election campaign costing hundreds of millions of dollars to run, Updegrove feels there’s simply far too much at stake for malicious actors to not make an attempt to influence the outcome. ‘With 330 million citizens, isn’t it a bit of a stretch to assume that not one of them will decide to spend a few thousand dollars to guarantee that their candidate wins?” he questioned. “It may be a stretch to assume that it hasn’t happened already.”
The Oslo Times: High Possibility of US Presidential Election Results Being Rigged: Attorney Andrew Updegrove
Excerpt: After reading even just a few chapters from your book, I found myself comparing reality with the plot you created, have any of the characters been created based on Donald Trump?
No, and there’s a simple reason for that. The book is a political satire, and it’s impossible to parody someone who is already a caricature of a human being. Trump would always be more ridiculous than anything I could come up with.
Guardian Voice (1/23/16): ‘The Lafayette Campaign’ Proves Donald Trump Could be President
Excerpt: The Lafayette Campaign: a Tale of Deception and Elections written by Andrew Updegrove is an eye-opening novel surrounding American politics which proves Republican hopeful Donald Trump could indeed become the next president of the United States of America. The book takes a satirical approach to voter fraud and the election process while revealing to the reader things many will wish they never found out. With a combination of technical accuracy, satire and drama The Lafayette Campaign is a nonstop page-turner.
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