The Assemblers

Morgan's fourth novel (Brother Enemy is a well-crafted, fast-paced, high-tech thriller, which cleverly keeps the reader guessing right up to the last chapter, and at the same time shows a deft hand with dialogue and characterization. At the center of the story is Wayne McNear, head of DataForm, a Dubois, Ark., company that helps large institutions nationwide ""police'' their computer databanks for unauthorized interference. But something has gone wrong, and DF's customers' computers are crashing, losing them thousands of dollars a day. Nobody can find out what's happeningor why. Furthermore, people connected with the problems are dying in odd accidents. McNear's deputy security chief, Bobbi Reardon, a tough, former local cop, becomes convinced that her boss is a victim of sabotage. However, her estranged, womanizing cop husband, Lt. Ray Weir, is not so sure. Morgan, editor of the Missouri Review, has come up with a chillingly realistic story that 10 years ago might have been called science fiction, and is now all too plausible.(November 12)