Chameleon

Two crack reporters are hot on the trail of a deadly assassin who's killing world petroleum experts to hide the discovery of a new oil deposit. FRANK O'HARA is a brilliant investigative reporter who's been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his searing expose of the CIA. In the face of CIA retaliation - the agency has sent a string of assassins after him - O'Hara has "disappeared" into the Japanese countryside, mastering the most arduous disciplines of self-defense and mental stamina. CHARLES GORDON HOWE, the crippled owner of a Boston television station and newspaper, receives a mysterious tip on what could be the biggest story since Watergate. He decides O'Hara is the only man who could possibly break the story, and after forcing the CIA to call off its hunt, he sends ELIZA GUNN, his own top reporter, to bring O'Hara in. Together, O'Hara and Eliza, five feet tall, tough and beautiful, embark on a far-flung journey--from Boston to the Caribbean islands and ultimately back to Japan. They are chasing someone known only as CHAMELEON, feared by all, known by none, is quite possibly the most menacing and mysteriously elusive person alive. Their chase takes O'Hara and Eliza through the dangerous, absurd and mind-boggling realms of huge oil cartels, big business and international conspiracies connecting back to World War II and leads them along a devastating path of ruthless destruction. O'Hara's and Eliza's travels also lead them to one incredible character after another: GENERAL HOOKER, retired from the Army, nearing eighty, tortured by his memory's insistence on anchoring him in his tragic past; the MAGICIAN, a marvelously comical six-fingered piano player who just happens to be the most important "drop" for intelligence networks around the globe; TONY FALMOUTH, a suave Irishman and top assassin-for-hire in the business, whose special instrument of death is a horror known as "the Leash"; TANA, O'HARA's exquisite Japanese lover; and KIMURA, O'Hara's wise teacher, master of the mystical seventh plane of the higaru-dashi. Finally, it is a journey that leads directly to the overwhelming and deadly secret of Chameleon. "A taut, sharp-edged thriller, always hanging precariously over the warping cliffs of danger. It stretches as far as it can, always expanding and flexing the novelistic muscles of the writer behind the work ... William Diehl ... has gone from literary contender to champion of his division." -- New York Daily News Combines two parts Robert Ludlum with a pinch of The Ninja...Diehl spares nothing once he gets into gear." -- Publishers Weekly