Zero Cool

The whole novel feels like a James Bond romance mixed with fish out of water Dan Brown esque stuff. Spoiler ALERT: So lead woman just kind of drops the main character out of nowhere at the end which left me with a bad taste in my mouth. A sort of "Well ok I guess that happened" kind of feelings. Thrilling story but really bummer ending

Twenty-six year old Radiologist Peter Ross is in Barcelona, Spain. It's 1967 and he's there to deliver a paper to the annual meeting of the American Society of Radiologists. After the talk he intends to spend some time on vacation, as he's not had one in years and it seems to start out okay when he meets a well-endowed, bikini-clad, long-legged English stewardess (it's okay to say stewardess, because they hadn't graduated to being flight attendants back in `67). However his vacation quickly turns sour when he's approached to do an autopsy. He refuses, he's not qualified and besides even if he was, this isn't America. But his refusal doesn't end his relationship with these men or others. All of a sudden Peter is caught up in a murderous web and he's in more danger than you can shake a stick at. This book is a bit over the top, but it's on purpose, so the colorful characters really play well against each other. If you're a fan of hard boiled mystery, you'll like this book. If you're a fan of the late Michael Crichton, you'll really like this book, because John Lange was/is Michael Crichton and this book proves that almost half a century ago, when he was a young man, Crichton had what it takes to keep a reader glued to the pages.

I'm a big fan of Lange's Grave Descend, but this book is even better. This is the classic Hitchcock plot; ordinary guy gets caught up in a web of intrigue beyond his comprehension in 1950's Europe, principally Spain. No one is whom they seem to be, there's a beautiful woman who may be more than she seems, and event move faster and faster towards the close. What makes this better than the average noir story is the unfolding clues and sense of mystery as the protagonist, Peter Ross comes closer to the truth. The locale descriptions are detailed and captivating. The final scenes, played out in the catacombs of the Alhambra, are quite exciting. If you like fast paced thrillers like The Da Vinci Code, you'll like this fine reissue by Hard Case Crime a lot. They have yet another winner.

The nubile brunette on the cover of this novel has by her side a copy of the Hard Case Crime edition of Grave Descend - also written by "John Lange." Nice touch!

An enjoyble novel. Crichton wrote it on the side during his medical school years to pay his bills. I am delighted that these books have been reissued.

At first glance, John Lange's Zero Cool seems to be another pulp style mystery from Hard Case Crime. It doesn't take too long, however, to realize this is a different sort of thriller, a rather comic novel which owes more than a little to The Maltese Falcon. Peter Ross is an American radiologist in Spain for a working vacation. Picking up women is not a huge issue for the young and available doctor, but he picks up some trouble as well. Some strangers are out to coerce him to perform an autopsy on a dead gangster, a requirement before the body can be shipped back to the U.S. The autopsy is really just a ruse to get some mysterious object planted in the corpse's body, a task that Ross will perform against his will. After that, things get complicated as rival groups try to obtain the corpse and its precious contents. Ross is ping-ponged among the parties including an eccentric professor, an amiably dangerous Texan and a count. People are dying around him and Ross has no idea what's going on. That doesn't stop him from being in real danger. Of course, it's hard to worry too much about him as a prologue shows Ross as a grandfather relating this tale of his youth to his grandson. Rather than diminishing the story, however, it allows the focus to shift from suspense to humor, particularly involving the convoluted situation Ross finds himself in. (Also, the prologue and epilogue make it clear that, despite a copyright date of 1969, at least part of this book was written later as there are references to DVDs and video cameras.) Admittedly, not all the humor works perfectly, but generally, this is a quick and fun read, another worthy effort in the Hard Case Crime series of hard-boiled crime fiction. John Lange is not really a big name in mystery fiction, but Zero Cool shows that he is worth reading.