Philip Kerr: The Grid (USA 1997)

From the Publisher:
WELCOME TO THE MOST INGENIOUS BUILDING EVER DESIGNED. NOW TRY TO GET OUT ALIVE...
In downtown Los Angeles it stands as a monument to man's genius -- a glittering, high-tech office tower that washes its own windows, purifies its own air, and even knows which of its employees is using drugs. But now, the building known as the Gridiron has turned malevolent. And its first victim is about to die.

From its hardware-jammed computer room on the fourth floor to the 300-foot-high tree that rises in its atrium, the Gridiron is thinking for itself -- and turning into a house of horrors. And for the men and women trapped inside, there is only one way out: through the raw human will to survive.

From Philip Kerr, one of England's most acclaimed writers, comes the towering novel of high-tech terror...

Philip Kerr: The Grid. A Novel. Warner Books, ISBN: 0446603406 (February, 1997), 446 p., $6.99.

Philip Kerr: The Grid (USA 1996)

From the Publisher:
Located in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, the sparkling new Yu Corporation Building is a monument to human genius. It can converse with its occupants. It can forecast the weather. It knows your body temperature, whether you've been drinking or using drugs. It darkens the windows in the noontime glare. It keeps the homeless away at night and lovingly tends the tree that reaches up through its beautiful atrium. Dubbed the Gridiron, the Yu Building is the culmination of art and function. It's also something else: a serial killer.

Something has gone wrong inside the immensely powerful brain of this corporate dream palace. Before the building is opened to the public, one member of a team of brilliant computer programmers dies slumped against his VDT, his eyes burned black. Then a security guard is found with his skull shattered. Now the men and women who know the building best - including its egomaniacal architect and the one person who may actually be able to reason with the computer - know that the building itself is spinning wildly out of control.

Built to survive power outages and the most massive earthquakes, the brain of the Gridiron cannot be unplugged and cannot be outsmarted. For the dozen people who are locked inside, the Gridiron is turning into a living, malevolent dungeon of terrors, where each death is more horrific than the one before, and human survival may be the ultimate achievement...

Philip Kerr: The Grid. A Novel. Warner Books, ISBN: 0446520535 (April, 1996), 451 p., $21.95.

Philip Kerr: Gridiron (UK 1996)

From the Publisher:
Los Angeles, 1988. Ray Richardson, a brilliant architechnologist, has created a dazzling new building. 'The Gridiron', in the heart of L.A. The Gridiron represents the state-of-the-art in smart buildings: every aspect of the building, from temperature control to security, is controlled by an intricate computersystem. On the eve of the building's official opening, a team gathers to put the finishing touches to Ray's new masterpiece. But there are a couple of unexplained deaths, which the team at first puts down to saboteurs. It is only when they discover how bizarre these deaths are that they realise the building - through its computer - is controlling them, and is set to destroy its creators.

Philip Kerr: Gridiron. Vintage, ISBN: 0099594315 (June, 1996), 384 p., £6.99.

Philip Kerr: Gridiron (UK 1995)

From the Publisher:
The place is Los Angeles; the time is the not-too-distant future. Ray Richardson, the world's most acclaimed architechno-logist, has created a dazzling new building GRIDIRON - in the heart of the city GRIDIRON is a smart building' on an unprecedented scale: every aspect of the building, from temperature to security, is controlled by an intricate computer system. On the eve of GRIDIRON's opening, a team gathers to put the finishing touches to Ray's masterpiece, and tension is running high. A number of things start to go wrong, and there are a couple of unexplained deaths - one which appears to be an accident, and another which looks very much like murder. Richardson and his colleagues gradually realise that they are facing a very nasty assassin, with a particularly malevolent plan. GRIDIRON itself seems to have turned against them, and has decided to use its own intelligence in an extraordinary new way.

GRIDIRON is a chilling and compulsive thriller that explores the dark potential of new technology. It will confirm Philip Kerr as one of Britain's best and most innovative thriller writers.

SOON TO BE A MAJOR FILM

Philip Kerr: Gridiron. The Brainy Chiller of the Year. Chatto & Windus, Open Market Edition, ISBN: 0701165030 (June, 1995), 373 p., £8.99.

Philip Kerr: Gridiron (UK 1995)

From the Publisher:
The place is Los Angeles; the time is the not-too-distant future. Ray Richardson, the world's most acclaimed architechnologist, has created a dazzling new building - GRIDIRON - in the heart of the city. GRIDIRON is a smart building on an unprecedented scale: every aspect of the building, from temperature to security, is controlled by an intricate computer system, the most advanced of its kind.

On the eve of GRIDIRON's opening, a team gathers to put the finishing touches to Ray's masterpiece, and tension is running high. A number of things start to go wrong, a member of the team walks out, there are demonstrations outside the building which are becoming a little too violent, and there is a minor problem with the computer which the technician is setting right.

And then there are a couple of unexplained deaths - one which appears to be an accident, and another which looks very much like murder. The building then decides to seal up its exits, and the team discover that they are trapped inside. As the deaths escalate, Richardson and his colleagues gradually realise that they are facing a very nasty assassin, with a particularly malevolent plan. GRIDIRON itself seems to have turned against them, and has decided to use its own intelligence in an extraordinary new way.

GRIDIRON is a chilling and compulsive thriller that explores the dark potential of new technology. Brutal, brilliant and challenging, is is packed with suspense, and rich in ideas. A brilliant successor to the highly acclaimed PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGAION, it will confirm Philip Kerr as one of Britain's best and most innovative thriller writers.

Philip Kerr: Gridiron. Chatto & Windus, ISBN: 0701162481 (June, 1995), 373 p., £14.99.