USA Today
November 22, 2011
When Michael Crichton died at age 66 in November 2008, he left behind a pregnant wife, an unpublished novel and the beginnings of another book.
His son, John Michael Crichton Jr., was born four months later. His 16th novel, Pirate Latitudes, was published in November 2009.
On Tuesday, Micro (Harper, $28.99), a techno-thriller that Crichton worked on during cancer treatments, will be released. It was completed by Richard Preston.
Preston, 57, a former veterinarian, is best known for The Hot Zone, a 1994 non-fiction best seller about the ebola virus, and The Cobra Event, a 1998 novel about the terrorist release of a fictional virus.
Preston never met Crichton but recalls being thrilled as a teen by Crichton’s first best seller, The Andromeda Strain, about a deadly alien microorganism. It was published in 1969, the year Crichton graduated from medical school.
Preston says, “The Hot Zone was a non-fiction answer to The Andromeda Strain.”
But when Lynn Nesbit, Crichton’s agent, called Preston to ask if he’d be interested in completing Crichton’s unfinished novel, Preston was dubious.
“I had never collaborated with another author,” he says. “It didn’t seem natural.”
