A Case of Need

A Case of Need occupies an interesting transitional place in the works of Micheal Crichton, and, I have to confess, that, at this point, I have far more questions than answers. The premise of the book is that a young woman has died of a botched abortion and a doctor who performs illegal abortions is charged with the murder. The protagonist, another doctor and a friend of the one charged does not believe the charge is legitimate and sets out to find out what happened.

Even though the book is published under the name of Jeffery Hudson, it is not a major departure from the preceding books published under the pseudonym of John Lange. I am not sure, at this point, why Crichton decided to switch names. I will have to look into that. I heard him say, in an interview, that Jeffery Hudson was a dwarf, and he found that amusing since in real life Crichton was very tall. But that does not seem to be an adequate explanation. The book is a mystery, written in a noir style not unlike Grave Descend, and the protagonist is a doctor, as was the case in Zero Cool. Had this been the last John Lange book, it would have fit right in.

On the other hand, we see some indications of where Crichton will be going in the future. You can see the roots of ER in his unflinching, perhaps even cynical, look at the realities of life in the medical profession. He enhances the credibility of the story by providing abundant medical information. And he takes on a social cause. The book was published in 1968. Roe v. Wade was not until 1973. So illegal abortions were still, very much, a social issue.

I found the book to be a very enjoyable read. As I approached the end, I slowed down not wanting it to end. At the very it weakened a bit almost as though it had to be finished to meet a deadline of some kind. But, overall, it was a delightful book and I will revisit it from time to time in future posts.

Grave Descend

Grave Descend is the second John Lange book to be reprinted by Hard Case Crime. John Lange, of course, is a psuedonym of Crichton's. A couple weeks ago I commented on the exceeding poor writing quality of Zero Cool. But Grave Descend is much, much better. It falls quite a bit short of Ross MacDonald or Robert B. Parker. But, as far as your run of the mill detective stories go, it is quite good.

Grave Descend was published only a year after Zero Cool and it feels like it was written by an entirely different author. This, I believe, supports my claim that Zero Cool was a pastiche. I will go even further out on a limb and say that in places Grave Descend has a distinct Ross MacDonald feel to it and maybe there was a bit of mimicing going on there as well.

It would be fun to get the other Lange books and try to further this line of investigation. Unfortunately, those that remain appear to be quite pricey and I am not going to have immediate access to them. Hopefully, I will stumble on to one or two of them at used book stores or libraries. Or maybe more will be reprinted over time.

But, as of Grave Descend, we can say that Crichton can write a reasonably good detective story and had he stayed with it he probably would have ranked up with the best. Although these books are a bit rough around the edges they are no more rough that the earlier works of many of the masters. But, that was not his fate. Grave Descend was published in 1970. Few people today have heard of it and enven fewer remember it.

A year earlier he published a very different book which most people have heard of, and most people remember. In fact, it would begin to define him as a mainstream science fiction writer and a philosopher of technology. That book, of course, is Andromeda Strain and it would launch Crichton on the path toward literary significance.