The Apocalypse Syndrome

When writer Hammond Sinclair arrives in Geneva to follow the World Climate Conference at first hand, he is not only interested in the global warming controversy. He suspects that a former student of his, now a right-wing extremist, is plotting a spectacular terrorist attack to disrupt the summit. In a city overrun by rival mobs of violent demonstrators from all over Europe, he meets a young anarchist girl, and in order to impress her takes part in a public debate. It plunges him into the maelstrom of an ideological conflict with high stakes, where opposing sides have their own visions of apocalypse, and are prepared to do anything to save humanity from the catastrophe they foresee. Chief Commissaire Vauthey of the Geneva Police has his own problems with a new female Police Chief who is trying to oust him. When a body is discovered buried in the snow on an alpine pass, the rival factions in the police pursue radically different trails. But even the help of a woman inspector from Scotland Yard's Special Branch may not be enough to allow Vauthey to uncover the terrorist plot before the fanatical believers in apocalypse try to trigger their own Armageddon. A cliff-hanging thriller with an intellectual theme and a plot right out of today's headlines, this novel explores the ways in which visions of planetary doom may push activists to extreme violence, in a desperate attempt to change the fate of mankind. www.michael-antony.com