Code Conquistador

by William P. Kennedy

A group of reporters' lives are endangered when they uncover a top secret plot by the United States government to gain control of Mexican oil

Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 1982

About the author

Kennedy is a New York Times best-selling author of nine novels in his own name and seven under the pseudonym, Diana Diamond. His novel, Toy Soldiers, was made into a major motion picture.

Kennedy began writing in High School for the Xavier Magazine, and then studied history and economics at Holy Cross College. After military service as a Naval Officer, he earned advanced degrees from New York University and became a business journalist, covering the computer, telecommunications, and electric power industries. This led to his founding TCI,an advertising agency for high-technology markets. He and his wife, Dorothy McNally, have five adult children and 14 grandchildren. They live on Florida's Gulf Coast.

Reviews

[Joe White · Rating 3 out of 5]

goodreads book review/notes 5/27/14 :

Code Conquistador 1982 William P. Kennedy

My rating 3 stars, could easily have been 4 stars to many people.

I wanted to read this book after having read: "The Masakado Lesson", 1986, William P. Kennedy.
The Masakado Lesson had program coding as a central cornerstone underpinning the story. I found it interesting for the historical look back at computer terminology from the late 70's.

Unfortunately the "Code" in "Code Conquistador" should be referred to as "Codeword", as in the name of an operation. ie. "Desert Shield" in the early 90's Iraq invasion. Written in 1982, it did precede and predict an oil field invasion. In this book the invasion was only a planned operation by the US Navy to support a puppet government in Mexico, while gaining control of the Pemex oil resources.

The central characters in this book were newspaper reporters who individually ferret out details of this highly covert operation, and were in a desperate life threatening pursuit by the NSA to prevent them from revealing enough facts to support an investigation. This would be a 30 year precedent to the Edward Snowden revelations, and though not parallel, there are enough similarities to make the book an interesting contemporary read. I found the suppression efforts by the NSA to be particularly relevant.