From Publishers Weekly
Steele (Labyrinth of Night) makes his hardcover debut with this brisk thriller set in an earthquake-devastated St. Louis in the year 2013. Eleven months after the quake, the city remains under martial law, policed by the troops of the federal Emergency Relief Agency. When hard-up reporter (and narrator) Gerry Rosen-whose son was killed and marriage ruined by the quake-gets a mysterious message meant for his best friend, fellow reporter John Tiernan, Rosen thinks he's stumbled onto a big story about corporate underhandedness. It soon becomes clear, however, that the story is far more important and dangerous than that. Tiernan is murdered, Rosen's apartment is ransacked by ERA troops and the reporter finds himself on the run, racing against time and ERA soldiers to fathom a conspiracy that threatens the entire country. Steele keeps the action moving at a breathless pace right up to the nail-biting climax. There's little that's new in his near-future setting, though-or in his plot, which treats its basic ingredients, artificial intelligence and corporate conspiracy, in a formulaic way, making this an entertaining page-turner but nothing more. (Nov.) Nonfiction
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Gerry Rosen, reporter for the Big Muddy Inquirer, uncovers a story too dangerous to print when he becomes involved in an undercover attempt to preserve the last vestiges of freedom in the United States, which is currently wracked by environmental disasters and threatened by increasing control from government relief agencies. Set in 21st-century St. Louis, this taut sf novel by Steele (Labyrinth of Night, Berkley, 1992) pits ordinary people against the bureaucratic machine. Most libraries will want this for their sf collections.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
