Chick Lit: Meet the Black Widow Agency

Looking for a geeky book to read this weekend? The Black Widow Agency by Felicia Donovan should be added to your "must-read" list if you're in the mood for a techie spy novel. The book is based on four women that use the latest surveillance technology and computer forensics to investigate cases on behalf of other women. The Black Widow Agency is headed by a Katie Mahoney, a former undercover cop, and twenty-something Alexandria Axelrod, a computer hacker that also goes by the name of "Geek Goddess." Their assistants Margo and Jane may not be as computer savvy, but they all have one thing in common: they've all been wronged by men.

You can read chapter one of The Black Widow Agency here, in which they devise a plan to help Gloria Duvay find out if her husband is cheating on her by asking her to open an email that appears to be spam, but actually installs sneaky programs that recover deleted emails and log anything her husband types (known as keyloggers). A Behind the Scenes section of the site reveals the Black Widows use sophisticated tools like Computer Forensics Toolkits such as Encase and FTK in their investigations. Surprisingly, they also use the SnoopStick to "gain covert access to a computer's files" and baseball caps that conceal a hidden video camera. I think would've loved the Micro Camcorder too.

Sounds like my kind of novel. I read the first chapter, and can't wait to see how they crack their big case. I found a quick review of the book over at Mystery Reader if you want to learn more about it. The fictional Black Widows team also keep an updated blog (written by the author) with a mix of goodies like how to make Margo's Chocolate Walnut Cake to advice on how to see where an suspicious email came from. They're so geeky! In a world with so many abusive high-tech stalkers, we all need a group of gals like these on our team.

Want more learn more about spy software?

Check out these articles:
Set a Hacker Alarm on Your Web Mail Box
Types of Phishing Attacks
Is Somebody Spying on Your IM Session?
Keylogging Software Can Follow Kids' Online Trail