Binary - Softcover

Michael Crichton (Writing As John Lange)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099319616 ISBN 13: 9780099319610

Publisher: Arrow Books, 1993

Synopsis

On a night in August 1972 in Utah, seven men, all with known links to the American underworld, hijack a Department of Transport train. They have been paid by an unknown source to steal two canisters of a highly effective insecticide, one black and one yellow. Not even these highly trained men know why they have stolen the insecticide and for what sinister purpose it will be used. They have been chosen because they will not ask questions...

Meanwhile in Los Angeles, Intelligence Agent John Graves is called in to investigate an unknown source that is tapping into highly secret files stored on the National Defence computer. Graves soon realises that there is a vital link between the mysterious computer tapper and the leader of an insane right wing organisation, a man with ideas of getting rid of the President and making America great again.

Graves uncovers a plot so evil that it will push his own intelligence and sanity to the limits, and time is beginning to tick away... Soon it seems that the city of San Diego will be poisoned by a nerve gas so deadly that it takes only minutes to kill... and Graves finds himself in a race against the clock, a race so important, that if he loses, it will result in the death of thousands of innocent lives...

Michael Crichton writing as John Lange.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Crichton was a writer and filmmaker, best known as the author of Jurassic Park and the creator of ER. One of the most popular entertainers in the world, Crichton sold more than 200 million copies of his books which have been translated into 40 languages and adapted into 15 films. Long before the carefully researched techno-thrillers that ultimately brought him to fame, Crichton wrote high-octane suspense novels to support himself while studying at Harvard Medical School. He published eight of these books under the pseudonym John Lange between the years of 1966 and 1972. They provided him with the means to complete his education. He graduated at the top of his class.

From Booklist

A man who thinks of himself as a political activist, but who appears to be more like a terrorist, has big plans nearing fruition. An American federal agent is keeping an eye on him, hoping to uncover the details of the man’s plot. When some deadly nerve gas goes missing, the American agent thinks he’s solved the mystery, but is it already too late? Between the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Crichton published a handful of actioners under the name of John Lange. They’re mostly straightforward thrillers, usually with a distinct pulp-fiction flavor to them (fast-paced action, slick stories, slightly larger-than-life characters). They don’t really resemble a Michael Crichton novel, although this one, from 1972—three years after Crichton published The Andromeda Strain under his own name—just might come closer than the other Lange novels. Science and technology are key elements in the story, and some of the writing has that familiar Crichton feel to it. A well-constructed race-against-time thriller. --David Pitt

Edition details

• Publisher: Arrow Books
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0099319616
• ISBN 13: 9780099319610
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 170