The
Cobweb, by
Stephen Bury (the
nom de plume of
Neal Stephenson and uncle
J. Frederick George) is a
techno thriller set in the days leading into the
Gulf War. Its hero is
Clyde Banks, a
deputy sheriff in a small
Iowa town. While
Clyde is merely looking to replace his boss in the
upcoming sheriff election, he is also unraveling a
mystery surrounding murder, corruption, and
bioweapon research at nearby
Eastern Iowa University.
You'd think that the federal agencies in Washington, D.C. would get involved. We see the picture of Betsy Vandeventer, a mid-level CIA analyst, who gets too close to the truth and is "cobwebbed" for exceeding her duties. While the politicos in various three letter agencies play bureaucratic shuffles, Clyde is left with little support to actually prevent a biological holocaust.
But first, Clyde has to change a diaper. You see, his wife was called to duty when her Reserve unit was mustered.
The Cobweb isn't
science fiction. It's a
mainstream thriller, akin to the
Dorothy Parker Spenser novels,
Tom Clancy's
Jack Ryan series, or
Arthur Mayor's
Joe Gunther mysteries. It examines
technology issues related to the
present day in further depth than most would, however.