BUGS BOOK REVIEWS

An entertaining diversion, Bugs is a fun programme with action aplenty and (generally) daft scripts and that's exactly what you get with a straightforward novelization of them. This is not to say that Leonard has done a bad job - he's managed to capture the raw energy and the characterization, especially the banter between Ed and Beckett, very well - it's just that, given the source material, people do some seriously silly things in literally explosive situations. This is particularly prevalent in the second of the two stories featured in this one volume, but more of that anon. Outof the Hive is the premiere episode and introduces the main protagonists, who are brought together by the theft of SACROS (Satellite and Communication Remote Override System), which could cripple world commerce and communication if in the wrong hands. Starting and finishing with helicopter chases, in between there is plenty of hi-tech detection work achieved by Ros Henderson's amazing gizmos and her skill by using them. There is also the hopelessly hackneyed scene of a tied 'n' gagged victim being fed into a used-car crunching machine with which to contend. During the unfolding of tale there are others interested in acquiring SACROS, who seem superfluous to the plot, but it is a way of segueing seamlessly into the second story.

All Under Control concerns the Cyberscope company and its dealings in illegal weapons (hence Cyberscope's involvement in the first story). Much of the plot revolves around a voice-activated bomb, so it seems curious that in two instances persons who could trigger the device by speaking do so in its presence (one wittingly, the other unwittingly). It was just lucky that they didn't speak loud enough, but both incidents demonstrate great foolhardiness, firstly by Ed and secondly by Ros. Even sillier is that when Ros want to plant a listening bug on someone she waves to the victim instead of doing her best to be invisible, thus immediately rousing suspicions of having been bugged. So tipped off, the victim does not communicate with her colleagues in a meeting room by passing around a written note, or, conversely, by broadcasting misinformation, but just lets the Bugs team know that their plan isn't working.

Slightly daft of not, it's all good, clean (if violent) fun and translates well to the written page.

Once again, this is a very competent re-telling of two of the tv shows. In All Under Control, Icarus is the code-name for a man who is planning to sabotage air traffic by gaining access to its newly installed NavCom devices installed to pilot aircraft. When, after a couple of very graphic demonstrations of how he can take over navigational control, he stages his final showdown with Ros as the only passenger aboard a new jet and his price is £50 million to put her down safely. But he has an accomplice who thinks differently… In Down Among the Dead Men the death of a young seaman salvaging a piece of equipment from a ship's graveyard is the unlikely trigger to bring the Gizmos team in to foil a £250 million diversion of funds to obtain the equivalent in diamonds. The two stories are linked by some people who were also in on Icarus's game and by the appearance of Dent, Beckett's ex-colleague from the Hive, who also wants Icarus's secret.

Both stories have the usual blend of fast action and lengthy dialogue about how to crack codes and enhance pictures and tape recordings, although also in both cases the credibility factor gets stretched rather thin. Nevertheless, this is what Bugs is all about - extrapolating modern technology just that little bit further, and stopping things getting boring by putting the protagonists into death-defying situations. One thing is puzzling, though. For an organization which doesn't have any links with the government or the military, the Gizmos threesome get away with a lot that should have attracted lengthy interviews with the local constabulary - All Under Control, for example, Ros is the last person to see a plane-spotter alive, and in …Dead Men Ed gets picked up by the Dutch coastguards in very iffy circumstances, but no one questions his story at all.

Anna Fabrizi, a tough Italian politician, dedicating to erasing corruption in her government, is in England. It is a visit with a dual purpose - publicly she is there with her political partner Alberto Corelli to further their image before a vital election in Italy but privately she is going to marry William Swift. Unaware of the latter until very late in the drama, Corelli wants her assassinated, as his political goals are not as altruistic as hers. When Swift calls in the Gizmos team to deal with a case of industrial espionage they quickly realize that this is not the real reason why he wants his business premises checked out. In quick succession three attempts are made of Frabrizi's life - and for the fourth attempt Ed is wired up as a human bomb in an ironic twist to the plot. Not so much a Shotgun Wedding; rather an incendiary one. Meanwhile, in Stealth, Tronix have manufactured the ultimate new car and again the trio are called in to stop espionage although Tronix head O'Neill has more irons in his fire than just a state-of-the-art automobile - he's into very dangerous technology with a new type of tank. The end of this adventures is truly nail-biting stuff, but it does not completely justify the exceptional dottiness of the plot. Worst offenders are dim bimbos Sarita and Davinia, who are whizzes when it comes to auto technology but otherwise rather lacking in the brains department. Also, as with previous adventures, a great deal of extraordinarily violent action goes on without attracting the concern of those in officialdom.

Corry has done a good job on making these two stories feel as if they are running concurrently, but for the most part writes in a distracting staccato style. This works well when used to describe the killer's point of view in the first story, but when it spreads to other characters it loses its impact. Strangely, after sustaining it for around 75 per cent of the text, he drops it towards the end. However, as with the others in the series, this is good fun.

In Manna from Heaven, Richard Lennox of New Earth Foods has spent years developing Phodex, a revolutionary source of nutrition made from algae found in the Amazon. Naturally, this is worth millions and, just as naturally, the secret is hotly sought by rival company Hennessey-Brock. A bungled burglary attracts the services of the Gizmos team and soon they find that Lennox is not telling the whole truth about his wonder food as, treated with ultraviolet light, it becomes toxic. Soon it becomes a race against time to find the antidote, which is in a safe protected by a complicated time lock. While Ros is suffering the effects of the poison, Ed has to crack the safe and Beckett has to stop the contaminated Phodex being tipped into the city's water supply by a power-hungry - and mad - ex-employee of New Earth Foods. It's all thrilling material, although for the sake of the plot Lennox does not remember the antidote in the safe until it is almost too late (being faced with certain death should focus the mind wonderfully, and this important little detail is surprisingly forgotten in all the excitement), and the story could have benefitted by being rounded off with a passage explaining how Beckett got out of the water pumping plant.

Hot Metal concerns a sound neutralizer and R6, a metal superconductor that is highly volatile when exposed to a high frequency and therefore useful as a terrorist weapon. Hired by the government this time, Gizmos have to deal with a master of disguise who makes Beckett's life very difficult, and a kidnap victim who is a personal friend of Millennium Metals himself, not the bad guys, who absconds with the majority of the spoils and a hi-tech chase sequence ensues. Generally speaking, this is one of the weaker stories in the series - at least on paper - as it doesn't have quite the usual roller-coaster effect that is the trademark of Bugs. Nevertheless, another good adaptation.

Gizmos are approached by the head of the International Sports Academy to investigate their doctor's experiements with a performance enhancer called tri-meserone after some students have disappeared. It soon becomes apparent that Doctor Hunter, believing he is only trying to manufacture a legal drug to increase atheles' abilities, is being used by an international mercenary to develop an army of super-soldiers. This is one of those adventures that leaves the reader quite breathless as Ros's endurance is tested to the limit, first being chased by a man unhinged by the power of the drug, then tied to a treadmill and finally pinned down under a weight-lifting device. The other don't get off very lightly, either. After the raw energy of A Sporting Chance, Pulse is almost tame in comparison, although it scores over the former in the villain department. Brothers Patrick and Jean-Daniel Marcel own Computer Recall, an agency which keeps backups of computer programs from multinationals to small, struggling companies covering a multitude of diverse trades including armaments and guidance systems. Patrick's methods of persuading small companies to sell out to him are drastic to say the least (and since he's done it on numerous occasions, why does it take the Gizmos team to make the connection between him and the deaths of top company executives? - sorry, silly question) while his sibling's Neanderthal appearance is perfect to cover the fact that he is both the brawn and the brain of the partnership.

Although Pulse has its share of the action, it loses some impact by only revolving around the destruction of computer-stored information and no direct threat to life in general. Certainly, this would not be good for the multinationals, but there are some of us who might not have too much sympathy with them… It is only the fact that the Marcel brothers would otherwise control things that keeps things credible. And speaking of credibility, the final defeat of Jean-Daniel makes one's eyebrows rise in despair.

Nevertheless, Lane's writing carries one along effortlessly through both yarns.