Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0553575457, Paperback)

A thought-provoking new thriller set in the tense moments of the Gulf War. When Clyde Banks, an Iowan Deputy with a newborn baby and a wife in the Gulf, starts looking into odd events in his town, he discovers a plot involving a new Triangle Trade of terrorists, chemical warfare, and training. Mixing the events staged in Washington, D.C. and those happening in the Gulf, a strange thread of deceit appears to be winding its way back to Iowa.

Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0553383442, Paperback)

From his triumphant debut with Snow Crash to the stunning success of his latest novel, Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson has quickly become the voice of a generation. In this now-classic political thriller, he and fellow author J. Frederick George tell a savagely witty, chillingly topical tale set in the tense moments of the Gulf War.

When a foreign exchange student is found murdered at an Iowa University, Deputy Sheriff Clyde Banks finds that his investigation extends far beyond the small college town—all the way to the Middle East. Shady events at the school reveal that a powerful department is using federal grant money for highly dubious research. And what it’s producing is a very nasty bug.

Navigating a plot that leads from his own backyard to Washington, D.C., to the Gulf, where his Army Reservist wife has been called to duty, Banks realizes he may be the only person who can stop the wholesale slaughtering of thousands of Americans. It’s a lesson in foreign policy he’ll never forget.

Amazon.com Download Description (ISBN 0553383442, Paperback)

Neal Stephenson is the author of The System Of The World, The Confusion, Quicksilver, Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, and other books and articles.

J. Frederick George is a historian and writer living in Paris.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0553378287, Paperback)

A thought-provoking new thriller set in the tense moments of the Gulf War. When Clyde Banks, an Iowan Deputy with a newborn baby and a wife in the Gulf, starts looking into odd events in his town, he discovers a plot involving a new Triangle Trade of terrorists, chemical warfare, and training. Mixing the events staged in Washington, D.C. and those happening in the Gulf, a strange thread of deceit appears to be winding its way back to Iowa.


From the Paperback edition.