| Odds On | |
| Author: | John Lange |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Publisher: | Signet Books |
| Release Date: | 1966 |
| Media Type: | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages: | 215 |
| Congress: | PS3553.R48 |
| Followed By: | Scratch One |
Odds On is Michael Crichton's first published novel.[1] It was released in 1966 under the pseudonym of John Lange. It is a short 215-page paperback novel. Hard Case Crime republished the novel under Crichton's name on November 19, 2013. Prior to the reissue, copies were rare and hard to find.[2] Since then even the reissue is becoming scarce, with few copies available on sources such as bookfinder or ebay. [3]
It describes an attempt of robbery in an isolated hotel on Costa Brava. The robbery is planned with the help of a Critical Path Analysis computer program, but unforeseen events get in the way.
The three Americans needed cover, as lone men stood out. So each decided he would pick up a girl, and mingle with the crowd.
The women were irrelevant, as the men's real interest was the hotel's safe, which would net them a million dollars in jewels, cash, and traveler's checks. The crime was brilliantly conceived. It was masterminded by a modern computer. But when they forgot the biggest risk of all - the women, and sex.[1]
As in many other Crichton novels the chapters are named by date as in a diary, rather than by number or other content. In this particular novel the chapters reflect the total timespan, the ticking clock, of the plot as a whole. The fifteen chapters begins with Saturday, June Fourteenth, and ending with Afternoon, June Twenty-Second. The timespan of the story is just a little more than a week, which is yet another similarity to Crichton's later novels.[1]
Being his first book, it also contains some of Crichton's 'trademarks' for the first time. Among other things, Crichton started his tradition of beginning his novels with quotes:
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."
Crichton wrote the book in 1965 while a student at Harvard Medical School. He sent it to Doubleday for consideration under the name "John Lange". A reader at Doubleday loved the book but thought it was "too saucy" for that company, so sent it on to a friend at New American Library.[4]
Crichton used the name John Lange because at this stage he planned to be a doctor and did not want his patients worried he would use them for his plots. The name came from a fairy tale writer called Andrew Lang; Crichton added an "e" and substituted his own real first name, John, for Andrew.[5]
In 1969, around the time film rights were bought for Crichton's The Andromeda Strain, independent producer Sam Roy bought the film rights to Odds On.[6] However, no movie was made.