Michael Crichton – Binary – Review

The fact that a young Michael Crichton, while a medical student at Harvard Medical School wrote several well-crafted crime thrillers, knowing the study load of any university student never seizes to astound me. In Binary, published in 1972, we see all the Crichton hallmarks: science, technology combined in a swift plot, taking the reader to the edge, virtually until the last page in a cliff-hanging, entertaining form.

In Binary, Crichton, ahead of his time, weaves a tale about domestic terrorism.

A wealthy individual, John Wright, extremely intelligent, is politically motivated to bring down the US President, and the entire republican party. What we discover is he's unhappy with the president making diplomatic overtures with China. Rather than plotting to assassinate the president, we see a number of seemingly unrelated crimes, which culminate in the possible event of a chemical attack that, in theory, could annihilate, not only the US president and his party, but the entire population of San Diego, consisting of over a million people.

The protagonist is another highly intelligent, analytically minded individual who has a great understanding of computers. John Graves has had Wright under surveillance for many months. All because, it appears, he has been targeted to have hacked highly sensitive information of National Security.

The story evolves into a competition of minds between Wright and Graves and, like chess, both are at odds, predicting each other next move.

What I found original, is that Wright, in his hacks, not only received information on various chemical weapons, but also John Graves' psychological profile. Graves discovers this, thus requesting his file from the powers that be who, understandably, are reluctant to hand over to him. Finally, he acquires his file, and the mind games begin between them.

In this Hard Case Crime edition, the cover, like many of the pulp fiction magazines in the '40s displays a hardcore looking woman, sitting beside two, what appears to be chemical cylinders, adorning skull, and crossbones. What is unusual, however, is the naked woman taking-up much of the cover. The novel hasn't a single woman character. So, like the old pulp covers in the past, I suppose the naked woman was intended to sell more magazines.

This early Crichton text gives his fans a window into his development as an author. There is no doubt, however, that the author of Binary, is Michael Crichton.

Comparably, Binary is a slim text, and certainly can be read in a single afternoon.