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    Scratch One: An Early Thriller
    Unavailable
    Scratch One: An Early Thriller
    Unavailable
    Scratch One: An Early Thriller
    Ebook294 pages4 hours

    Scratch One: An Early Thriller

    By Michael Crichton and John Lange

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    “Set in the ultra-glamorous French Riviera of the late sixties . . . pure, high-octane entertainment” from the blockbuster author of Jurassic Park (Pop Mythology).
     An arms dealer in Copenhagen dies after sipping a poisoned martini. An American diplomat in Lisbon is shot in the back of the head. A Frenchman survives being pushed in front of a train, only to be murdered in his hospital bed. Though seemingly unconnected, these events are part of an international conspiracy that could spell death for Roger Carr.

    Carr is a lawyer, but he has no love for Lady Justice. A dilettante playboy sent to France on a cushy assignment, he lands himself right in the middle of an international arms deal. Both sides of the conflict have mistaken him for an agent, and the secret service interventions of a dozen countries will do anything to secure him—dead or alive.

    This ebook features an illustrated biography of Michael Crichton including rare images from the author’s estate.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Media
    Release dateJul 23, 2013
    ISBN9781453299241
    Unavailable
    Scratch One: An Early Thriller
    Author

    Michael Crichton

    Michael Crichton (1942-2008) was the author of the ground-breaking novels The Great Train Robbery, Jurassic Park, Disclosure, Prey, State of Fear and Next, among many others. Crichton’s books have sold more than 200 million copies worldwide, have been translated into thirty-eight languages, and provided the basis for thirteen feature films. Also known as a filmmaker and creator of ER, he remains the only writer to have a number one book, movie, and TV show in the same year.

    Read more from Michael Crichton

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    Reviews for Scratch One

    4/5

    15 ratings6 reviews

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    • 3/5
      During his John Lange period, Crichton had a penchant for writing about the Monte Carlo, the French Riviera, and the Costa Brava. This book is no exception as the action begins outside a casino in Monte Carlo before moving on to Cairo, Lisbon, and Copenhagen. In each of these cities, mysterious assasinations took place.

      In the beginning of the book, there are a lot of things going on with disparate people in a variety of cities. It is hard to keep them straight. A terrorist group composed of Algerian and other Mideast elements wants to stop shipments from getting to Israel, which is building a nuclear reactor. The CIA wants to counteract what the terrorists are doing. So they send an assassin to Europe. Meanwhile, the Associates, led by Dr Georges Liseau, hire Ernst Brauer to counterattack the American assassin.
      Into all this steps Roger Carr, who is heading to France for a real estate deal but somehow gets mixed up in international intrigue. It's several decades before the internet and fax machines and digital phones and in this semi-primitive time, mistakes about identity can be made and both the Associates and the CIA think Carr is Morgan who never made it to France. Carr gets strange phone calls at his hotel room, notes left under his drink at a cabaret theater, a strange taxi driver who leaves indecipherable clues, and a woman who approached him at the cabaret shows in his hotel room and suddenly vanishes sans her underthings. And, that's the weird stuff before the naked woman with a gun, the stranger on the palisade with a gun, and the Tommy-gun erupting on the street. There's also the matter of the knife-wielding guy who shows up in Carr's hotel room.
      Meanwhile, Carr just scratches his head, confused.

      Chrichton writing as Lange has done better work. It's readable, but not as slick and finished as it could be.
    • 2/5
      I liked the location for this story. Also, it did have a bit of the "spy" vibe to it. The main character, Roger is likable. Although, maybe not the brightest bulb in the pack. It was amazing that he did not get killed. In regards to a spy thriller, this book did have the old fashion feel to a spy movie back in the late sixties to early seventies. Not a lot of sex or violence. The story did move along fairly fast. There were a bunch of characters that like another one of Mr. Lange's books, I had trouble keeping all of the characters straight. Again, due to Roger's lack of intelligence; at times the story did seem implausible. Yet, it was nice to see how Mr. Lange got his start as a writer.
    • 4/5
      One of the better early Crichton thrillers (written under his John Lange pseudonym) that Hard Case has reissued. It has the same problems I'm always complaining about (for example, he drops oddly specific details that aren't really necessary). The sexism and misogyny is a bit more muted in this one. And the resolution feels more like a real ending.
    • 3/5
      Slow to develop and to many characters early on, but it roars to a finish in the final 60 pages.
    • 5/5
      Very good loved all the twists and turns of it
    • 4/5
      I won't go into too much detail here. I'd read State of Fear first, from Michael Crichton aka John Lange, really loved it and went looking for more, and came across these, his early first works.

      I did think "Odds On: A Novel" - the first of the early stuff (Scratch One, as per Wikipedia, is second) was slightly better, in some respects, but not necessarily all.

      Odds On is more "adult" (some say soft porn), more seemingly cohesive mystery crime novel than Scratch One, but the latter is, in my opinion, more romantic, more densely (eventually) involved.

      Also, the glint of real cruelty and evil is more starkly present here. This is especially so as, my first impression, was Scratch One was going to be a Pink Panther-ish easy crime romp. That beguiling beginning (which almost got too over-drawn) provides the psychological context of the protagonist, and then sets off against the real danger and hard core cruelty of the villain.

      That's an oversimplification of a plot line, as I looked at the page numbers passing, that grew increasingly complex and dense.

      There's a meandering-ness to the story I've come to see reflects the hot sun and easy pace of the locale, Nice and surrounding towns.

      Eventually, the chase-danger-thriller scenes nearer the end are, in my opinion, better than "Odds On..."

      I look forward to reading these older works in sequence.

      I feel I'm watching a fine creative mind at work.