Very Public Data — Matthew Eberz

Major Sam Call, now retired from the Army, has joined LNMB Investigations owned by his friend David Lytle. David was instrumental in helping Sam uncover the identity of an escaped German POW, solve a war crime that had remained hidden for 45 years, and also bring home a soldier missing since 1945. IdentityPoint, a public records company, is a major player in the relatively new world of computerized public records; providing the government and private companies with reports on an individual's data; data which revealed everything from the person's birth to their death, and everything in between. One corporate officer believes others in IdentityPoint have been illegally benefiting from a string of acquisitions and hires LNMB to go undercover to seek the financial data to prove her suspicions. Along with David's long-time associate Bob, a small, unassuming but extremely resourceful man, Sam is immersed in a mesmerizing world of data and computers and quickly discovers the immense power the company and the data have over the lives of typical citizens. While using the company's powerful reporting tools, Sam unknowingly alerts the F.B.I., and Sam once again finds himself the target of those who would wish to silence anything Sam has to say, as well as silencing Sam-permanently. Set in Georgia, British Virgin Islands, and Washington D.C., Very Public Data, explores the world of public records, secret organizations, world of personal identity systems and those that build them and those who abuse them. Very Public Data unveils both the positive and negative power of public data, and while this is a tale of corruption, murder, and deception, it is also a celebration of the love of a man and a woman, the unbreakable bond of soldiers, and the undying strength that honor brings to the human spirit.