3 dead! 56 wounded! Film at 11!  
 
Well actually, you have until Saturday Night so there's time to run around like Sherlock Holmes on speed and solve the mystery just minutes before the news media puts your company out of business.  
 
Not exactly Jurassic Park here! This has to be the worst I've ever read from Michael Crichton.  
 
There are 2 major problems with this book.  
 
The first is Crichton's tendency to be overly technical. I like a story that is based on facts. And learning a little about those facts along the way can be fun. But we didn't need to know the level of details presented here to appreciate the dilemma the heroin was dealing with.  
 
Which brings me to the other major problem. I, for one, didn't really care about the dilemma. I worried about the fate of the human race if those dinosaurs managed to escape from Jurassic park. But I didn't worry that this highly skilled woman was going to lose her job (Oh the horror of it all)! Or that a Chinese (the new "Evil Empire'?) would steal an American wing design.  
 
Less important but still distracting from the story is Crichton's habit of throwing his own prejudices and political beliefs into his stories. Beside the 'Evil Empire' we get a one sided view of the 'Evil Media' and a terrifying portrait of the 'Evil Union'.  
 
I'm not a fan of today's media with it's 'sound bites' and 'shock value equals ratings' attitude. But I think that the story here implies that every media person has a 100% disregard for anything but his/her own personnel ego. I find that hard to believe.  
 
I'm also not a fan of unions with mostly short term, selfish goals. But still, this story would have us believe that the union would take any opportunity to seriously injure or even kill a middle aged single Mom who has nothing to do with their actual grievances, just because she is part of management. No way Mike!  
 
I DO like Chrichton. And there were a few riveting moments in the book. It might even make a good movie since the movies tend to cut out all the technical stuff anyway.  
 
