World Order

In a novel inspired by actual research into the causes of Gulf War Syndrome, Dr. Linda Franklin, NASA's senior crash site investigator, discovers a secret biochemical weapon developed by the U.S. government to destroy the industrial capacity of rising third-world competitors. 30,000 first printing.

A conventional woman-on-the-run-from-mysterious-forces plot gains new levels of obscurity in Goliszek's (Rivers of the Black Moon) turgid tale of high-level biowarfare coverups. Widowed NASA molecular biologist Linda Jackson is suspicious when the investigation of a mysterious plane crash is suddenly closed. After her boss is murdered, Linda and her husband's friend John Peterson undertake their own investigation. Soon, the two sleuths are off to Malaysia, where they break into a secret biochemical installation while various characters?the president, a fanatical Army general, a group of military-industrial plutocrats calling themselves the Vanguard?deliver arias about downsizing, drugs, international unrest, NAFTA, GATT and other threats to America. Although these events occur in the spring of 1996, there's hardly any mention of the upcoming election. The writing is pedestrian at best, and the murky plot and plethora of scientific jargon will muddle most readers, who might profit by first reading the afterword. In it, Goliszek offers apparently heartfelt theories about "psychochemical warfare," government secrecy and Gulf War Syndrome?including his contention that America gave Iraq its germ warfare technology and knowingly gave U.S. troops ineffective gas masks. Appendix not seen by PW.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This distrust-the-government thriller features a female geneticist who tries to expose the diabolical project of a superpatriotic American general. Dr. Linda Franklin, a biological investigator of remains at aircraft crash sites, becomes suspicious when an undue amount of secrecy is imposed over an accident. Mindful that her husband was killed while poking around a similar accident, Linda chums up with John, computer whiz, friend of the dead husband, and possessor of connections vital to Linda's plans and Goliszek's plot. While the pair rush from D.C. to Maine to Malaysia and back, Goliszek draws back the curtain on the councils of the baddies, General McKnight and a cabal called the Vanguard. Their operation "World Order" will restore American economic supremacy--just how becomes obvious but is dramatically incidental to what at bottom is a sprawling chase scene of a novel. Although Goliszek springs one surprise in the form of a double agent, the story overall is predictable, yet its motif of germ warfare should scare up some readers. Gilbert Taylor

A thriller with an agenda: Goliszek's first novel concerns a Pentagon plot to create a biochemical weapon, while his afterword argues that such a weapon really was used, causing the Gulf War syndrome.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.