Dust

""They're dead, I tell you! All the fungus gnats are dead!"" screams a famous entomologist just before his protective suit is ripped apart and he's devoured by millions of vicious mites in this biothriller debut from self-described ""scientific gadfly"" Pellegrino. According to the publisher, it was Pellegrino's theory of dinosaur cloning that jump-started Jurassic Park; and his first novel does share with Crichton's novel a certain X-Files-meets-Scientific American appeal. What it doesn't have is the mighty Crichton narrative engine to carry it over the rougher patches of weird science. Pellegrino gets off to a good start: paleobiologist Richard Sinclair's Long Island neighborhood has been attacked by a deadly horde of mites--the first indication that something has gone horribly wrong with the world's ecosystem. After the bugs kill his wife, Sinclair and his nine-year-old daughter escape to the relative safety of a nearby research facility, and Sinclair begins an investigation of the widespread insect extinctions that have brought on a host of other, world-threatening disasters. Meanwhile, a crooked former talk-show host with messianic pretensions whips up a frenzy among the hungry, frightened populace. Despite the promising ingredients, most readers will probably be so bogged down by overheated pseudo-jargon (""everything that was happening today was but the final blossoming of a stupendous explosion that had begun as a small flare--much like... Richard's crystallization event"") that they'll be rooting for the mites. (Mar).