cover image Remote Intrusion

Remote Intrusion

Howard Olgin. Dell Publishing Company, $5.99 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-440-21879-1

Olgin (Lifebank) creates a medical world in virtual-reality surgery teeters on the brink of the actual in a second novel that tries too hard. The gripping main plot follows young Dr. Holiday Powers, the new chief of advanced surgical technologies at Pacific University in Los Angeles, who agrees to perform experimental computer-aided laser surgery on one of the university's primary Japanese benefactors. The catch: doctor and patient must remain on separate shores. But the laser goes berserk and cuts the patient's spinal cord. Powers then must defend her colleague and new lover, who is accused of tampering with the mainframe. But throw in Powers's privileged youth, her misspent love affairs, her new relationship with the father of an old flame and her annoying refusal to let go of the past, and this tale of woe--like the laser--spins out of control. (Nov.)