A young American model is murdered in the corporate boardroom of Los Angeles`s Nakomoto Tower on the new skyscraper`s gala opening night. Murdered, that is, unless she was strangled while enjoying sadomasochistic sex that went too far. Nakomoto, a Japanese electronics giant, tries to hush up the embarrassing incident, setting in motion a murder investigation that serves Crichton (Jurassic Park) as the platform for a clever, tough-talking harangue on the dangers of Japanese economic competition and influence-peddling in the Divorced LAPD lieutenant Peter Smith, who has custody of his two-year-old daughter, and hard-boiled detective John Connor, who says things like "For a Japanese, consistent behavior is not possible," pursue the killer in a winding plot involving Japan`s attempt to gain control of the computer industry. Although Crichton`s didactic aims are often at cross-purposes with his storytelling, his entertaining, well-researched thriller cannot be easily dismissed