Another below-average and understandably pseudonymous early thriller from the late Michael Crichton. Stupid, fun, but stupid more than anything, shot through with plot hole after plot hole, attempting to cheaply mimic James Bond novels, particularly in regards to strange, damaged, and thoroughly unbelievable villains, but entirely without the flare and stylistically sweet prose of Ian Fleming.

Goofball radiologist Ross Something thrusts himself into a metaphorical chess game between the mathematical(! rhombus!) Professor and the dwarf Count (and yes, yes, yes, he lives in a castle and has a giant scarred mutant of a servant to guard him) because he singles out one babe on the beach and happens to be an American doctor. Often it feels more like a comedy than anything; the dialogue is constantly trying to be witty and hip. Far too often the characters seem to turn their brains off and ignore significant details that are just too goddamn obvious; e.g., “Hey, that lady just sprayed us with a cologne-like substance. Huh. Weird, it doesn’t go away. You know, my former boss trains giant eagles to murder people using perfumes to tag his victims, and thinking about it, that woman who sprayed us is my old colleague. Hey, there’s a giant eagle circling above us. Huh. Oh, well!”

I give it props for featuring the greatest surprise twist in the history of twists. Hey, if my already shady and paper-thin girlfriend was replaced with an effeminate man wearing a dress and cheap wig, I probably wouldn’t notice either!

Still, I wouldn’t mind if Hard Case Crime were to continue republishing Crichton’s long out-of-print early John Lange novels. $6 is already pushing it, but dear lord! $50? $80? that’s just absurd! No! no!

35%
[58] ( )

This one wasn't so good. It's reads like a luke-warm and dumbed down version of a novelized addaption of a Sean Connery-esque James Bond knock off. If you like witty banter, two-dimensional characters, and lame, lame prose then this, my friend, is the book for you.

The cover is good. The young lady is reading John Lange's previous HCC novel, Grave descend. I already paid for it, so I'll read it, but I know what to expect: more of the same. ( )

Very different than his "regular" stuff. Seems like he wrote this quickly over a weekend. Very quick plot. More of a humorous caper story than a hard boiled mystery. Worth the read, but the new video interview sections were annoying. Should have reprinted the story without adding it. ( )