Off-Line [Hardcover]

Lawrence Goldstone (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1998

The year is 2020. Glynnis Rodman, brilliant and beautiful, a senior executive at MicroLink, one of the country's most powerful cyber companies, has been found dead in her apartment after an S&M encounter with a stranger. Veteran senior investigator Phil Gagliardi Jr., forty-two, bored, and recently divorced, is called to the scene. Computer analysis determines the cause of death to be cardiac arrest induced by an overdose of an illegal, orgasm-enhancing drug. Records prove that the drug had been supplied by the partner. The case seems to be open and shut, but Phil cannot get the image of the dead woman out of his mind. Despite skepticism within the department and pressure from higher-ups, he decides to investigate on his own. Phil soon learns that in the twenty-first century investigating a crime is not so easy. In a society where ColorMatch selects the contents of a clothes closet, ArtTech chooses wall decor, and an AccuStove prepares dinner, criminal analysis has been entirely entrusted to microchips. For the first time in years, Phil must solve a crime without help from machines, a skill that he has almost forgotten.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If it bothers you that the pizza delivery place maintains a database filled with phone numbers, addresses, and favorite toppings, consider the future as depicted in Lawrence Goldstone's dystopian thriller Offline. In the technologically advanced 2020s, no one needs to drive a car, decide what to wear, decorate a house, take out the trash, or mow the lawn. AutoDrive, ColorMatch, DecoTech, LandscapeMaster, and TrashMaster handle all such quotidian details. And no one--not even a cop--has to think about much of anything. Aside from facing the sheer ennui inspired by such a system, humanity is fast approaching obsolescence, as machines grow smarter and do more and more on behalf of their titular masters. At least one fellow, however, is none too pleased about being replaced by a motherboard: Detective Phil Gagliardi. That's Phil Gagliardi Jr., son of the eponymous internal affairs investigator who figured in Goldstone's first novel, Rights.

When Gagliardi gets the call to investigate the suspicious death of a high-level employee of the powerful MicroLink corporation, he instinctively knows there is more to this murder than meets the eye. But in an altogether online, plugged-in world, it's hard to keep your instincts to yourself--and even harder to catch the real killer. In his search for answers, Gagliardi turns to Phil Sr. and to the two brilliant young men (both suspects themselves) who started MicroLink, Mitchell Padgett and Sulimanijir Patel. He also stumbles upon a group dedicated to reining in technology and in doing so must confront the age-old question of whether the end justifies the means. Goldstone's vision of the future is not particularly imaginative (let's hope a few products and systems avoid using "Auto" and "Master" in their names), and perhaps that's the point: as machines think more like humans, will we become more mechanical? This one should warm the cockles of any Luddite heart. --Gwen Bloomsburg

From Publishers Weekly

Smug, middle-age cop Phil Gagliardi seems to have all the answers when he's called in to investigate the death of 31-year-old computer company executive Glynnis S. Rodman in Goldstone's (Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World) pedestrian, comic-book 21st century. More is off balance than on target in this cyberthriller, which revolves around a watered-down, far less captivating version of Hal, the computer from 2001: an artificial intelligence prototype with a self-revising subroutine that Phil and his associates must learn to neutralize. Two of his cohorts are old schoolfriends, Mitchell Padgett (requisite childlike geek) and Sulimanijir Patel (sports fanatic). Together, the two men founded the world's largest computer company, parted ways and now must reunite for the sake of the world. Phil's father, Phil Sr., an ex-cop, offers pretech advice to the trio. Several bodies fall along the way. Adolescent e-sex, cliched dialogue and familiar observations on the banality of evil fail to give this novel the jolt it needs.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (April 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031218641X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312186418
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,044,899 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lawrence Goldstone is the author of fourteen books of both fiction and non-fiction. Six of those books were co-authored with his wife, Nancy, but they now write separately to save what is left of their dishes.
Goldstone's articles, reviews, and opinion pieces have appeared in, among other publications, the Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, Hartford Courant, and Berkshire Eagle. He has also written for a number of magazines that have gone bust, although he denies any cause and effect.
His first novel, Rights, won a New American Writing Award but he now cringes at its awkward prose. (Anatomy of Deception and The Astronomer are much better.)
Despite a seemingly incurable tendency to say what's on his mind (thus mortifying Nancy), Goldstone has been widely interviewed on both radio and television, with appearances on, among others, "Fresh Air" (NPR), "To the Best of Our Knowledge" (NPR), "The Faith Middleton Show" (NPR), "Tavis Smiley" (PBS), and Leonard Lopate (WNYC). His work has also been profiled in The New York Times, The Toronto Star, numerous regional newspapers, Salon, and Slate.
Goldstone holds a PhD in American Constitutional Studies from the New School. His friends thus call him DrG, although he can barely touch the rim. (Sigh. Can't make a layup anymore either.) He and his beloved bride founded and ran an innovative series of parent-child book groups, which they documented in Deconstructing Penguins. He has also been a teacher, lecturer, senior member of a Wall Street trading firm, taxi driver, actor, quiz show contestant, and policy analyst at the Hudson Institute.
He is a unerring stock picker. Everything he buys instantly goes down.
For those with insatiable curiosity, you can learn more at www.lawrencegoldstone.com