Pacific Heights: A Marten Fane mystery - Softcover

This story which introduces Marten Fane, appears at first glance to be yet another mystery/thriller "series". Actually it is something quite different. Pacific Heights is a story that reaches beyond itself. Even though it is a self-contained story, it is actually more than that: it's the first "chapter", or "installment", or "episode" of a single, much larger story that will unfold over the span of multiple novels. Therefore, Marten Fane will be the protagonist in a serial novel, rather than a novel series.
 
Pacific Heights  is also a story that doesn't confine itself to a single genre. It is part mystery, part thriller, part spy novel, and like life itself, it cannot be categorized easily. In this respect it reflects the hybrid world in which it is set: the growing,  fast-changing, increasingly complex world of privatized intelligence. The U.S.  government now spends more than 70 percent of its national intelligence budget on private contractors. The implications of this sea change for our culture are profound. And though it will have a far-reaching effect  on our lives, we will have very little, if anything, to say about it. In an age when communication is a vastly more important part of our lives than at any other time in history, secrecy casts a darker shadow than ever before.

Paul Harper is the pseudonym of David Lindsey, the New York Times bestselling author of thirteen previous titles. A native Texan, he lives with his wife in Austin.