LIGHT SOURCE

by Bari Wood ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 28, 1984

Wood, guilty of exploitation/maudlin excess in previous thrillers (Twins, The Tribe), does a likable, mostly solid job with an old genre here: the heroine-in-jeopardy formula--this time set in 1990, featuring a damsel-in-distress who's a plasma physicist with earthshaking secrets inside her head. Emily Brand, 37, researching at the university at Lake Placid, has cracked the ""light source"" that everyone's been trying to figure out: controlled fusion energy, which will make it possible for everyone to ""light and heat their houses for about thirty bucks a year."" But, thanks to a slimy Lake Placid informer, Emily's secret breakthrough is leaked to George Talbot, kingpin of the vast, oil-based NARCON conglomerate--who is less than thrilled by the news. (Says the informer: ""You and everybody else in this palace's going to have to drink the oil to get rid of it."") And Talbot, who has used hired killers to bury energy-breakthroughs before, decides to kill Emily and her colleague Marvin Lipsky, a plan which is feverishly endorsed by Talbot's son-in-law David Lucci: he has been enviously obsessed with Emily since they were elementary-school rivals. (This subplot is the novel's one glaringly strained contrivance.) Meanwhile, on the other hand, the US Prez is desperate to get the ""Light Source"" details--which might save his career and the country. So the essentially familiar chase begins, with fugitive Emily trying to get her secret-formula to the White House. . .while assassins and NARCON conspirators are determined to kill her. A plane-bomb kills Marvin, but not Emily; she fatally foils one hit-man by magnetizing the metal on him with her nuclear reactor; there's a shoot-out at a smalltown bank (Emily's been betrayed by her banker, a sex-blackmail victim); she is framed for murder; she gets help from her plucky sister and an elderly deli owner; her attempt to send her findings to the Times fails. . .because the science editor is yet another NARCON pawn. And finally, after violent showdowns on Nantucket (where Emily has sought asylum with her old elementary-school teacher), she reaches the Prez at last, the world gets the ""Light Source,"" and all the villains get punished. Despite the usual implausibilities (e.g., why Emily doesn't go to the police at the very start) and a few un-usual ones: lively, well-paced chase/conspiracy melodrama, with a low-key but engaging heroine and a sprightly supporting cast.

Pub Date: June 28, 1984

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: New American Library

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1984

Categories: FICTION