The Cyberthief and the Samurai Jeff Goodell Dell 328 Pages U.S. $5.99 ISBN 0-440-22205-2 _________________________________________________________________ Reviewed by Chris Gulker In The Cyberthief and the Samurai, Rolling Stone writer Jeff Goodell presents an interesting and well-researched report on the now-famous hack of Tsutomu Shimomura's computers on Christmas Day 1994. Unlike competing authors John Markoff and Jon Littman, Goodell was unable to get either Mitnick or Shimimura to cooperate at length (Shimimura and Markoff signed a 7-figure deal together, Mitnick was in jail). Deprived of the main characters, he proceeds to dig more deeply into surrounding events than either Markoff and Littman, who focus squarely on the main personnae. And dig he does. Goodell reports particularly well on some of the really awful aspects of Kevin Mitnick's painful life. Taken together with the other two, this book fills in many gaps and thin patches in the celebrated tale. Goodell's rich context sets Mitnick's obsessive hacking in sharp relief to a tapestry woven from painful personal experience: a childhood haunted by frequently-changing, sometime abusive stepfathers, the revelation that a favorite uncle may have been involved in the overdose death of a half-brother under mysterious circumstances, and more. As the tail follows the tortuous track from San Diego to Raleigh, North Carolina many more players come to light, and members of the main cast are raised into multi-dimensional relief, thanks to Goodell. The bit players, investigators, policemen, computer experts, the director of a half-way house and a guy who rented Mitnick an old car in Raleigh all come to life in interviews with Goodell. One senses that Goodell could have done a very fine job if he'd been in Markoff or Littman's shoes, with access to the main players (although this is not to say that Markoff and Littman don't deliver). But it wasn't so: Goodell must settle for a Dell paperback timed to take advantage of the hype and publicity surrounding the Shimomura/Markoff and Littman titles. Nevertheless, his good reporting and wealth of detail will be interesting reading for those drawn to accounts of the world's most famous hack.