7 /10 1 Votes
Country United States Publication date 1972 Pages 225 Originally published 1972 Page count 225 | 3.5/5 Goodreads Language English Media type Print (Hardcover) ISBN 0-394-47987-4 Preceded by Grave Descend Publisher Alfred A. Knopf | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Genres Techno-thriller, Speculative fiction Similar Michael Crichton books, Speculative fiction books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Binary is a techno-thriller novel written by Michael Crichton in 1972 under the pen-name John Lange. Crichton also directed Pursuit, a television film version. The story of both the book and the film revolve around a deadly nerve agent composed by combining two different chemicals. Hard Case Crime republished the novel under Crichton's name in 2013.
Contents
Plot summary
The villain is a middle-class small businessman named John Wright who decides to assassinate the President of the United States. He spends his life savings to carry out the theft of a U.S. Army shipment of the two precursor chemicals that form a deadly nerve gas codenamed VZ when combined.
The ingredients for the nerve gas VZ were intended to be detonated in downtown San Diego, coinciding with the arrival of the President at the Republican party convention taking place there. This nerve gas had no safe antidote, and it kills in two to three minutes after being inhaled or touched.
This nerve gas is contained inside two "Alacran" (a combustible plastic) tanks, and plastic explosives are wrapped around the containers so that after the nerve gas is released the containers explode, rendering the scene of the crime untraceable.
Reception
The Guardian said it had a "dotty, old-hat plot made unexpectedly credible with new gadgetry and well-engineered surprises". The New York Times wrote "the author maintains tension ably".
Pursuit
Pursuit was a 1972 made-for-TV movie that screened on the ABC network based on the novel. It was a TV Movie of the Week and marked Crichton's directorial debut.