Disclosure by Michael Crichton

No Series

DRAMA / SUSPENSE

A brutal struggle in the cutthroat computer industry; a shattering psychological game of cat and mouse; an accusation of sexual harassment that threatens to derail a brilliant career...this is the electrifying core of Michael Crichton's new novel, the first since Rising Sun.
At the center: Tom Sanders, an up-and-coming executive with DigiCom in Seattle, a man whose corporate future is certain. Until: after a closed-door meeting with his new boss -- a woman who was his lover ten years before, a woman who has been promoted to the position he expected to have -- he is accused of sexually harassing her. Now he finds himself trapped between what he knows to be true and what he knows others will assume to be the truth. And, as he uncovers an electronic trail into the company's secrets, he begins to grasp just how cynical and manipulative an abuse of truth has actually occurred...

Tackling one of the most divisive issues of our time, Disclosure compels us to see beyond our traditional responses. It is Michael Crichton at his best.

"Power is neither male nor female."

Ultimately I'm giving this one a three star rating for various reasons, but it was engrossing and harder to put down than most 3 star books.

Crichton touches on the very real but often neglected and non-discussed issue of using sexual harassment as a weapon and political maneuver. Usually this subject is brought up because of the power being leaked out of the other end of the spectrum, producing victims, yet here he shows that certainly isn't always the case, even if it's not politically correct to point that out. The issue of diversity and women's rights come up often, but rather than making it sound like sexism digs, he's showing the black and white angles that aren't influenced by only emotive responses.

Despite having Meredith Johnson be a manipulative shrew who used sex as a weapon, and his wife Susan sadly seeing herself as a victim while not able to hold it together well, Crichton did deliver the excellent female character Fernandez as the attorney, and the intelligent and well-appreciated Stephanie Kaplan. Tom himself as a lead was relatively mediocre and not fully convincing by himself, but still the story was a hard to put down soap opera.

Technology in it is severely dated – oooh! Shiny cd drives alert! --- but I read it for the story and not the dinosaur advancements.

Sometimes first names are overused in dialogue, and sometimes characters are slightly one-dimensional, but it was an enjoyable corporate soap opera with a satisfying take-off turn in the end. I still have a lot of Michael Crichton left to read, which excites me since I’ve enjoyed most of the books by him I’ve tried so far.