Jerome Preisler: Powerplays - Bio-Strike

Created by Tom Clancy and Martin Greenberg

Penguin

$19.95

Tom Clancy has become so famous he no longer writes the books that bear his name. Like any brand, what Clancy wants is dominance in the market.

So the Op-Centre series has colonised anti-terrorist thrillers; the Net Force series the cyberthriller while Powerplays are political/biological terror novels. So yes, here criminal mastermind Harlan Devane has spread a "superbug" waiting for his biochemical triggers.

The only man with the organisation to stop him is Roger Gordian, head of Uplink Technologies. But Gordian was target numero uno. The plot is incidental.

The true show is watching Clancy the mastermind usurp more shelf space.