Off-Line

The year is 2020. Glynnis Rodman, brilliant and beautiful, a senior executive at MicroLink, one of the country's most powerful cyber companies, has been found dead in her apartment after an S&M encounter with a stranger. Veteran senior investigator Phil Gagliardi Jr., forty-two, bored, and recently divorced, is called to the scene. Computer analysis determines the cause of death to be cardiac arrest induced by an overdose of an illegal, orgasm-enhancing drug. Records prove that the drug had been supplied by the partner. The case seems to be open and shut, but Phil cannot get the image of the dead woman out of his mind. Despite skepticism within the department and pressure from higher-ups, he decides to investigate on his own. Phil soon learns that in the twenty-first century investigating a crime is not so easy. In a society where ColorMatch selects the contents of a clothes closet, ArtTech chooses wall decor, and an AccuStove prepares dinner, criminal analysis has been entirely entrusted to microchips. For the first time in years, Phil must solve a crime without help from machines, a skill that he has almost forgotten....in Lawrence Goldstone's Off-Line.