The Weapon

Hopkins will lose many of her readers from the outset of this present-day thriller when she introduces her heroine, Veronica Stone, "the leading technologist in the world," who also happens to be "tall, raven-haired, and curvaceous," and often mistaken for a model. After her company rolls out a high-definition, three-dimensional video cellphone, Stone is approached by her chief business rival, Hirojia Nakashimi, who wants her assistance making conventional arms obsolete by weaponizing radio signals and light%E2%80%94the key to creating this new weapon (based on old Russian plans) is Stone's breakthrough in three-dimensional imaging. Unsurprisingly, Stone's decision to help Nakashimi places her life in jeopardy and leads to threats against her family. Plausibility is in short supply, with hard-to-believe gaps in national security created to advance the plot and Stone's transformation into a woman of action unconvincing.