It begins with an assassination attempt on Victor Jennings. And then three others. All carried out by a group known as the Associates! Another of their victims shared the same name as my 3 year old bonus son - Revel!

As for the overall plot, it was a bit confusing for me. There is a case of mistaken identity, but the lawyer who is mistaken for someone else seems to have all the abilities of an undercover agent, which made no sense to me. And then there was the plot of the Associates, which I didn't understand at all. I almost flipped back to see what I missed, but found I didn't really care enough to do that. It reads quickly, and there's lots of action on these pages, I'm just not sure why! ( )

A farcical tale of mistaken identity. A lawyer is mistaken for a spy and unwittingly keeps eluding the people after him while remaining clueless. A fast-paced story, but not at the level of Crichton's later works. ( )

I had to read this, and the other early thrillers written by Michael Crichton under various pseudonyms, him being one of my most favourite authors. Long before he became world renowned for his brilliantly versatile techno-thrillers, Crichton wrote several light pulp fiction novels to pay for his medical school. Scratch One is one of those, meant only for entertainment without taxing the reader's mind - of no consequence, in Crichton's own words. In spite of this, glimpses of Crichton's knack for imparting detailed technical knowledge to the reader through his fiction - related to medical science, art and Monaco Grand Prix - are evident in this novel too. I confess that I would not have picked it up if Crichton's name was not associated with it. But, I am happy that I did, and enjoyed it with all its plot holes and implausibilities. ( )

Pretty good story ( )

I liked the location for this story. Also, it did have a bit of the "spy" vibe to it. The main character, Roger is likable. Although, maybe not the brightest bulb in the pack. It was amazing that he did not get killed. In regards to a spy thriller, this book did have the old fashion feel to a spy movie back in the late sixties to early seventies. Not a lot of sex or violence. The story did move along fairly fast.

There were a bunch of characters that like another one of Mr. Lange's books, I had trouble keeping all of the characters straight. Again, due to Roger's lack of intelligence; at times the story did seem implausible. Yet, it was nice to see how Mr. Lange got his start as a writer. ( )