Pacific Heights: A Novel (Marten Fane) - Hardcover

Harper, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805093931 ISBN 13: 9780805093933

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co., 2011

Synopsis

A San Francisco detective becomes entangled with a private intelligence agency as he investigates what appears to be a traceless form of murder

A couple meets in a seedy hotel room for an illicit affair, the rules of which are simple: no names, no personal details, the specifics of their lives off-limits. It's all very exciting to Lore Cha—the wife of a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur—who thinks their forbidden meetings and taboo sexual encounters are exactly the escape she's been looking for: every single detail is as she imagined. But that's the problem. Phillip Krey anticipates every thought before she has it. He plays out her untold fantasies down to the last detail. His insights are beyond intuitive; they're invasive, even frightening. It's as if he has access into her mind. Across town, Elise Currin, wife to one of San Francisco's most powerful businessmen, is also seeing Krey, and is slowly being driven insane by his ability to tap in to her most private desires. When it's revealed that these women are also seeing the same therapist, a chilling scenario unfolds, and the quiet, plotting detective Marten Fane is called in.

Slowly Fane uncovers a plot that goes beyond Krey to reveal a powerful private sector, secret government involvement, and one of the most elaborate and monstrous psychological experiments imaginable: a traceless form of murder.

About this title

From the Author

This story which introduces Marten Fane, appears at first glance to be yet another mystery/thriller "series". Actually it is something quite different. Pacific Heights is a story that reaches beyond itself. Even though it is a self-contained story, it is actually more than that: it's the first "chapter", or "installment", or "episode" of a single, much larger story that will unfold over the span of multiple novels. Therefore, Marten Fane will be the protagonist in a serial novel, rather than a novel series.
 
Pacific Heights  is also a story that doesn't confine itself to a single genre. It is part mystery, part thriller, part spy novel, and like life itself, it cannot be categorized easily. In this respect it reflects the hybrid world in which it is set: the growing,  fast-changing, increasingly complex world of privatized intelligence. The U.S.  government now spends more than 70 percent of its national intelligence budget on private contractors. The implications of this sea change for our culture are profound. And though it will have a far-reaching effect  on our lives, we will have very little, if anything, to say about it. In an age when communication is a vastly more important part of our lives than at any other time in history, secrecy casts a darker shadow than ever before.

About the Author

Paul Harper is the pseudonym of David Lindsey, the New York Times bestselling author of thirteen previous titles. A native Texan, he lives with his wife in Austin.

About this edition

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0805093931
• ISBN 13: 9780805093933
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368