Crichton apparently got the idea to write this after a vacation in Monte Carlo to see the Grand Prix and visiting Cannes, and didn't like it. It feels like a book written after a holiday and he's right - it isn't very good. It's the worst Crichton book I've read.
The basic idea is okay - a visiting American lawyer is mistaken for an assassin - even if derivative of North by Northwest - but the execution is lame. Villains talk like they're in a bad film, the hero is an unlikeable drip (rich American who inherited his job basically and has few special skills), the plot is silly (killing a bunch of people to stop an arms shipment), too much of it is unrealistic (an arms dealer who is also a formula one driver).
The second half perked up when the American teamed up with an Aussie expat (though not much is done with her Australian-ness) and a clever opponent. But it was still too silly - the hero got out of too many tight spots by virtue of bad aim. It's the sort of thing that you might buy a bit more in say a film - I read one review which said it had film logic not book logic which made sense.
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