The Japan Conspiracy - Softcover

Anderson, Jack

Softcover

ISBN 10: 078620110X ISBN 13: 9780786201105

Publisher: Thorndike Pr, 1994

Synopsis

When a Japanese extremist group plots to throw the U.S. economy into chaos, a group of young American corporate lawyers is all that stands between them and the next depression

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

Washington columnist Anderson (The Cambodia File, 1981, with Bill Pronzini; etc.)--famed and prized for his exposure of real-life evil political deeds--cooks up fictional thrills having to do with ruthless Japanese who still carry a grudge and have the billions in gold bullion to do something about it. As America's ill-advised, inexperienced President Walton (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) prepares to fly off to Osaka for a summit with the Japanese prime minister, pretty, ambitious, orphaned, young lawyeress Alison Carey and moody, insecure, but basically swell young lawyer Kevin Daulton--employees of a vastly powerful L.A.- D.C. law firm--slave over an immensely complex stock offering for a rabidly anti-Japanese conglomerateur. But what's this? Alison's first glimpse of her firm's ultrapowerful senior partner reveals him to be the same powerful manipulator she just happened to see secretly hobnobbing with even more ultrapowerful Japanese executives on a visit to her sister in, of all places, Guam. Wouldn't his loyalties be, you know, divided? At the same time, Elinor Woods--the kindly, attractive junior senator from California--gets an anonymous note on CIA letterhead urging her to ask the secretary of state what he knows about something called the ``O Fund,'' which she does, scaring the bejeebers out of the secretary and giving her committee chairman apoplexy. On the West Coast, the young lawyers look into the doings of their treacherous boss. On the East Coast, the senator and her dedicated Chicano chief of staff look into the ``O Fund,'' which has something to do with ill-gotten Manchurian gains. In Japan, a cabal of imperialist industrialists, gangsters, and politicians prepare to bring about the total collapse of the American financial system while President Walton is in Osaka suffering, as did his predecessor, from an upset stomach. It's all one big conspiracy. Heartstopping for foreign-policy wonks, who will, presumably, not be put off by bureaucratic dialogue (``Farrow grunted. `Gold was essential, of course' ''). -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

A sneak attack on the American economy by a consortium of extreme nationalist Japanese industrialists is the focus of Anderson's ( Zero Time) tale of a financial Pearl Harbor. A tip--on CIA letterhead--prompts California's new Senator Elinor Woods to question the White House about the "O Fund." When both the White House and Senate colleagues turn defensive, her aide, David Perez, starts to probe. Meanwhile, back in L.A., Alison Carey begins her own investigation into suspicious goings-on in the law firm where she is a summer associate. Suddenly her apartment is burgled, her sister's house on Guam is searched, and her lawyer/boyfriend, Kevin Daulton, is fired for digging in files. When Perez is killed and his O Fund notes stolen, Kevin's dad enlists Raymond Farrow, a rich friend with the President's ear. Farrow and the Senator team up to work the Hill while the California kids continue to sleuth on the coast. The pairs converge on the scion of Miyaki Industries just as the market is poised to crash. Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Anderson credibly develops the economic threat, greedy lawyers and political conniving central to his story, but the improbable success of the youngsters in the crooked law firm is too contrived. On the other hand, the Japanese extremists' plot is constructed without Japan-bashing--no mean feat.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thorndike Pr
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 078620110X
• ISBN 13: 9780786201105
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 493