From Publishers Weekly
In early 21st-century America, the law-and-order Gray Party rules through fear of crime and the Vandergroot Molecular Sniffer, which can detect molecules associated with almost any form of illegal activity. A nanotechnological chemist in Philadelphia, David Sanger, develops nanoware that can block the Sniffer. He promptly finds himself assaulted, arrested, framed for three murders and on the run. David's flight takes him through the Philadelphia ghetto and a virtual-reality role-playing game, and into a climactic assault on the Gray headquarters. The pacing is brisk, even too much so at times, with Sanger's ethical transformation and some plot turns likely to race past readers. McCarthy (Flies in the Amber) offers memorable characters, however, and manages to tell an enjoyable and imaginative tale of social and technological speculation without loading on the hardware.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
In this hard-science 21st-century suspense novel, Dr. David Sanger discovers nanotechnology that renders ineffective the Vandergroot Molecular Sniffer?the ultimate detector of everything illegal. When Otto Vandergroot is murdered at a scientific conference, Sanger battles to save his life, his career, and his technology while his mentor and his best friend/lawyer die trying to protect him. This fast-paced adventure will appeal to techno-freaks and anti-totalitarians. Highly recommended.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
David Sanger is a brilliant young grad student whose latest nanotechnological invention incites the wrath of famed inventor Otto Vandegroot because of its potential to make the "Vandegroot sniffer" obsolete. In revenge, Vandegroot foolishly challenges David to a duel at a research conference, only to be publicly humiliated by him. When Vandegroot is later found murdered, David becomes the immediate suspect. He solicits the help of his ever-resourceful sidekick, sometime lawyer, and computer whiz Bowser Jones to clear him. But Vandegroot's death is quickly followed by the murders of David's university adviser and then Bowser, which force David into life on the lam and, with the help of his journalist girlfriend, firsthand investigation to clear his name. Nanotechnology, cyberspace, and glitzy weapons technology spice up McCarthy's third novel but take a backseat to fast and frequently graphic action and exciting plot twists. Well-written, escapist futurism. Carl Hays


From Kirkus Reviews
McCarthy's third novel and first hardcover is set in a near- future Philadelphia dominated by the Gray Party, which is rapidly turning the US into a police state under the pretext of providing law and order. It's all made possible by an invention that can sniff out explosives, weapons, poisons, and drugs; the machine is now installed everywhere, no matter how inappropriate or intrusive the venue. David Sanger, a young nanotechnology researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, is due to present two papers at a conference--but at a reception he's physically assaulted by the sniffer's litigious inventor, Big Otto, and defends himself. Hours later, Big Otto turns up dead, with David's fingerprints all over the murder weapon. Even worse, someone trashes David's lab. Numerous corpses later, Gray police burst into David's apartment and try to kill him. On the run, David suspects that the head political honcho of the Grays is behind all the shenanigans. To clear himself, he's going to have to find out what's really going on, and he's going to have to go after the Grays. He begins by inventing a nanomachine that will disable those symbols of repression, the ubiquitous sniffers. Unconvincingly plotted, peopled, and paced, with a generally sophomoric feel and approach. Even the nanotechnology offers no thrills. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Midwest Book Review
Blend hard science, science fiction, and mystery and you have a story which is hard to categorize and equally hard to put down. Set in 21st century America, this follows a young ambitious physicist's struggles when his breakthrough is threatened by a colleague's murder - with him as the prime suspect. McCarthy's story weaves politics and science so deftly that the mystery shines.


Review
"When was the last time a book took you by surprise? Wil McCarthy spins a tale of murder and high nanotech, political corruption and outrageous gambles as an appealingly innocent scientist dodges through one of the twistier plots in recent memory. Think 'Hitchcock meets Heinlein' and you've got the idea of this whirlwind thriller." --James Patrick Kelly

"Wil McCarthy fulfills the promise of his earlier works with Murder in the Solid State. A taut, near-future thriller with a dash of Chandler." --Jack McDevitt

"McCarthy deftly blends the SF and mystery genres with a healthy dose of paranoia to create a fast, completely engrossing thriller." --Locus

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Murder in the Solid State, the new McCarthy novel, is a hard-science, page-turning suspense novel of one man's battle to save his life, career and country in twenty-first century America. David Sanger is an ambitious young physicist. He is about to present a groundbreaking paper on nanotechnology at a conference in Baltimore. At the opening cocktail party, an elderly scientist, the grand old man of nanotechnology himself, Otto Vandegroot, takes offense at a sly insult and draws his hi-tech collapsible sword. Someone hands David a sword, which he doesn't know how to use, but he wins using street-fighting skills, shaming the older man in public. At the crack of dawn the next morning David is wakened by the police. Vandegroot's body has been found stabbed with the sword David discarded after the fight. And David, who escapes incarceration only with the help of a loyal friend (and lawyer), finds himself in such big trouble that he has to disappear and go underground to save his life - because the political implications of David's nanotech discovery are so large that some people are willing to kill to suppress it.

SYNOPSIS

At the dawn of the 21st century, the "molecular fabrication" industry is poised to remake the world in its image, as did the manufacturing and computer industries before it. But life on the cutting edge can be dangerous; against a backdrop of scientific breakthrough and political oppression, graduate researcher David Sanger is implicated in the death of a colleague, and quickly finds himself caught up in the machinations of those who would shape the future to their own ends.

FROM THE CRITICS

Jack McDevitt

"Fulfills the promise of his earlier work. A taut thriller with a dash of Chandler." -- Jack McDevitt

Vernor Vinge

"Exceptionally good. Besides being an excellent mystery, it is a convinving look at the near future of nanotechnology." -- Vernor Vinge

Charles DeLint

"Breathless... Its striking quality is not so much the fascinating science as the canny use of hardboiled prose and keen sense of pacing. Any author with the knack for tight, vivid writing and good SF mystery in an often clueless field should be applauded." -- Charles DeLint, F&SF

Locus

McCarthy deftly blends the SF and mystery generes with a healthy dose of paranoia to create a fast, completely engrossing thriller.

Publishers Weekly

In early 21st-century America, the law-and-order Gray Party rules through fear of crime and the Vandergroot Molecular Sniffer, which can detect molecules associated with almost any form of illegal activity. A nanotechnological chemist in Philadelphia, David Sanger, develops nanoware that can block the Sniffer. He promptly finds himself assaulted, arrested, framed for three murders and on the run. David's flight takes him through the Philadelphia ghetto and a virtual-reality role-playing game, and into a climactic assault on the Gray headquarters. The pacing is brisk, even too much so at times, with Sanger's ethical transformation and some plot turns likely to race past readers. McCarthy (Flies in the Amber) offers memorable characters, however, and manages to tell an enjoyable and imaginative tale of social and technological speculation without loading on the hardware.(July) Read all 10 "From The Critics" >

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