The Trapdoor

L.J. Rouse was a freelance writer in Toronto.

Joe is a hacker, who breaks into corporate computer systems and transfers funds to where he wants them to go — his personal account. He’s a loner, a wimp, a nerd. He has no friends, and gets his pathetic jollies through “Bedtime Stories,” a service that provides sexual fantasies to order on his computer screen. He calls himself, “The Lightning.”

Suddenly Joe’s little fantasy world is blasted wide open. Big-time crime wants his services, and he is swiftly recruited — but he’s way out of his league. Things and people move far too fast for him to keep up, and when somebody blows his treasured secret identity sky high, and then tries to murder him, the computer worm turns. Joe decides to revenge “The Lightning,” but to do so he needs help, and he doesn’t have a soul to turn to — except the anonymous “Madame X,” author of “Bedtime Stories.” You can’t help rather liking the somewhat ineffectual little crook whose drab life is lighted only by the dim green glare of his computer fantasies.

The novel is fast-paced after a slow start; great fun for computer hackers, and explicitly sexy.