The Broken Window

Author's Note

Cal­vin Ged­des’s com­ment abo­ut a “bra­ve new world” is, of co­ur­se, a re­fe­ren­ce to the tit­le of Al­do­us Hux­ley’s 1932 fu­tu­ris­tic no­vel abo­ut the loss of in­di­vi­du­al iden­tity in a sup­po­sedly uto­pi­an so­ci­ety. The bo­ok re­ma­ins as har­ro­wing as ever, as do­es Ge­or­ge Or­well’s 1984.

Re­aders wis­hing to know mo­re abo­ut the is­sue of pri­vacy might want to pe­ru­se so­me of the fol­lo­wing or­ga­ni­za­ti­ons’ Web si­tes: Elect­ro­nic Pri­vacy In­for­ma­ti­on Cen­ter (EPIC.org); Glo­bal In­ter­net Li­berty Cam­pa­ign (www.gilc.org); In De­fen­se of Fre­edom (www.inde­fen­se­of­fre­edom.org); In­ter­net Free Exp­res­si­on Al­li­an­ce (http://ifea.net); The Pri­vacy Co­ali­ti­on (http://pri­vacy­co­ali­ti­on.org); Pri­vacy In­ter­na­ti­onal (www.pri­vac­yin­ter­na­ti­onal.org); Pri­vacy.org (www.pri­vacy.org); and the Elect­ro­nic Fron­ti­er Fo­un­da­ti­on (www.eff.org).

I think you’ll al­so enj­oy—and be un­ner­ved by—the ex­cel­lent bo­ok from which I bor­ro­wed se­ve­ral qu­ota­ti­ons to use as epig­rams, No Pla­ce to Hi­de, by Ro­bert O’Har­row, Jr.

Tho­se who’d li­ke to know mo­re abo­ut how Ame­lia Sachs ca­me to me­et Pam Wil­lo­ughby might wish to re­ad The Bo­ne Col­lec­tor, and the­ir fol­low-up story in The Cold Mo­on. Si­mi­larly, The Cold Mo­on desc­ri­bes Lin­coln Rhyme’s first me­eting with the kil­ler whom he and Ins­pec­tor Long­hurst try to cap­tu­re in this no­vel.

Oh, and be su­re to ke­ep an eye on yo­ur iden­tity. If you don’t, the­re’re plenty of pe­op­le out the­re who will.