New York: Viking, (1987) dj. Hardcover first edition - The author's eighteenth novel, a stand-alone thriller, the story of multinational greed which goes from the back-alley slums of Central America up into the canopy of the tropical rain forest. "In an alleyway in San Jos, Costa Rica, a botanist is shot to pieces, and the specimens he is carrying are stolen. A primitive but thriving coffee collective in the mountains runs into sudden opposition from the authorities. An agricultural field station in Nicaragua is wiped out in a surprise attack, and three years worth of research is destroyed. These events and the brutal killings that follow are the consequences of a covert operation mounted by Greenfinger Inc., a subsidiary of the giant Associated Foods International." Originally published in the UK under the title ZDT. 246 pp. ISBN: 0-670815888.