To The Last Page

Before he became a successful bestselling writer of fiction and blockbuster film and TV series ( Westworld , Jurassic Park , ER ), Michael Crichton cut his teeth writing a series of pulp suspense novels under the pseudonym of John Lange. Written in 1967 while still a medical student, his second Lange book  Scratch One meets the remit of that sensationalist style well. It's an espionage thriller based around a case of mistaken identity that provides action and excitement glamour and perhaps a bit of tongue-in-cheek or knowing humorous play with the genre. There is a serious political deal that is taking place however that underlies the intrigue, an arms deal and shipment of Norwegian surplus weaponry that is being shipped to Israel. A middle Eastern terrorist group, known as The Associates, having got wind that Israel are building a nuclear reactor, want to prevent the deal taking place and have employed a number of assassins to target those agents who are setting it up. When one o...