It's the early 1940's. Howard Russo, young American genius and photography buff, is about to earn his Masters in Engineering from Oxford University. The war across the channel is ramping up, the terrifying bombings a nightly occurrence. Lonely for his beautiful new wife Sylvia and disgusted with the growing world tensions, Russo distracts himself by trying to develop a better camera lens, one that can capture the true essence of a subject. Perhaps, his photographs, if they were good enough, could help alleviate some of the hatred percolating around him. Then the idea came to him, why not harness the camera to the university's new main frame computer? Why not create a program that could manipulate a photograph, make the photograph sharper, more realistic? Howard Russo was not exactly aiming for mind control over the subject of a photograph, though that possibility crossed his mind...and intrigued him. Just when he was on the verge of a breakthrough, however, Chief Yamato, a Japanese industry magnate, learned through one of his spies about Russo's absurd project. Yamato, desperate to revive his Tokyo business, swiftly and brutally obtained Russo's prototype. Initially, it was all about the enormous wealth Yamato knew could be his with such a contraption. A few years later, though, when America retaliated after Pearl Harbor and wreaked havoc on Yamato's life, the head of the company could think of nothing but revenge. Nearly twenty years pass, Yamato cracking the whip; his underling, head engineer Mr. Masuki, teetering on the brink of insanity; failing again and again to get the camera hooked up to a computer and programmed. In a thrilling climax, will Masuki, finally succeed? Will Yamato now be able to control someone's mind and extract his American pound of flesh? Or will Howard Russo's long-suffering wife Sylvia, who has been on her own strange journey for the past two decades, put all of the pieces together in time? Will Sylvia Russo, herself an engineer, be able to combat the evil her husband's creation has already unleashed?
About the Author: Former Jersey girl, Suzanne Snyder-Carroll lives and writes in a SoFlo double-wide. A marathon runner and world traveler, she taught in the Trenton and Hopewell Valley School Districts and was a consultant to the Princeton University Teacher Prep Program and an advisor for the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Poetry Festivals. She is a member of the Palm Beach Writers Group and summers in Ocean Pines, Md.