Before he struck it rich with novels, movies and TV series under his real name, Michael Crichton had published a range of thrillers under the nom-de-plume John Lange. The original editions of those are now commanding impressive sums on the second hand market, so it is good to see that these are now being reprinted by Hard Case Crime.

Love the cover of ZERO COOL! Look closely and you will see that the book the girl is reading is actually another John Lange reprint (GRAVE DESCEND).

This is a very fast and very silly read...... but enjoyable if you are able to stomach some of the 1960s pulp fiction head scratch moments that come with the terrain such as [spoiler alert!!!] when the hero does not spot that his romantic partner was replaced by a cross dressing henchman of one of the book's major king pins of Crime. [spoiler over]

It's a globe-trotting piece of mindless fun. So mindless that Crichton penned a new prologue and epilogue for this edition that has the hero (Dr Ross - any relation to his ER character?) narrate this adventure to his grandson who - young as he may be - remains in utter disbelief over the exploits. Nice touch. :-)