Dark Genius: A Child Prodigy in the Shadow of the CIA

Fresh out of high school, McClung in the mid-1970s went to work for a small firm in California's Silicon Valley designing such items as a pen-gun, a laser-sighted rifle, an exploding ashtray and a high-tech thumbscrew, all for sale in the international arms market. He was shocked to learn that the company was run by ``crass profiteers and mean-spirited opportunists'' whose business dealings were often illegal. Later he discovered that they were thinking of having him murdered, fearful that he was going to blow the whistle on them. McClung went into hiding, camping out in the Sierra Nevada for a couple of years. He now produces custom-made guns and knives ``somewhere in central California.'' Basically this is an entertaining tale about a precocious young man who got involved in a sleazy fly-by-night business that may or may not have been backed by the CIA. Rivele is coauthor of Lieutenant Ramsey's War . 50,000 first printing; $75,000 ad/promo; movie rights to Paul Mas lan sky. (Oct.)