First-timer McDaniel and veteran Womack (The Software Bomb, 1993, etc.) attempt to breathe new life into Richard Connell's classic story "The Most Dangerous Game" by making the man hunted for sport into a series of hunted women. Read full book review >

A wormer, not a hacker, has broken into the mainframe at the First Interstate Bank of Louisiana and planted a program that will wipe out all the bank's files unless a ransom of $5 million is paid. Enter Jack Lynch, former public-relations director at First Interstate (Murphy's Fault, Smash Cut), who interrupts his new domestic arrangements—new office, new apartment, willing new neighbor (psychiatrist P.J. Campbell) across the hall—to go on the bank's tab hunting the electronic extortionist. No, he doesn't pick the perp out from the bank's faceless officers and minions in time to forestall the payoff, but once he finds the links between a bank VP and the crooked new Louisiana Lottery Commission, it's all over for the hapless wormer, and everybody else. A high-tech, low-tension case less interested in plot surprises- -or the mechanics of computer crime and detection—than in tired rehashes of Jack's earlier adventures. For fans and relatives only. Read full book review >

New Orleans p.r. honcho Jack Lynch (Murphy's Fault), now trying to score positive media points for client Andrew Kwang, whose plans to purchase the defunct Riverbend Nuclear Power Plant and convert it into Kwang World Pictures headquarters has run afoul of Pearl Bergeron, representative of the Louisiana Film Commission- -is suddenly up to his press releases in trouble: Pearl is murdered, and Lynch's client shapes up as the number one suspect. And no wonder: Kwang and Pearl had a major argument over dinner; Pearl's late husband, director Harry McMillan, was murdered on a Kwang film location (an unsolved case); and Pearl's indulgent daddy is the state governor, who wants answers now. But was Pearl's death caused by Kwang, or was it related to the radiation-spoiled p.r. film shot by Lois, a sexy freelancer who spoon-feeds Lynch clues— or just possibly red herrings. Past and present crimes overlap before Lynch, who again loses a girlfriend to death, sorts through the emotional debris, effects a nifty helicopter rescue, and redeems his client. Workmanlike plotting and prose—enlivened only by Lynch's relationship with his acerbic, bored secretary Maud. Read full book review >