High Definition

Big business and political corruption ignite this thriller where billions ride on U.S. government approvals for the latest high definition TV technology.

Buddy Brisker, a Washington lobbyist, overhears and tapes a conversation implicating a powerful U.S. congressman who heads the telecommunications sub committee. Brisker believes he is taking bribes to benefit Japanese interests in the lucratative high definition TV market.

Brisker is closing in on the proof when two-transplanted Yakuzi, gangsters imported from Japan, hurls him from a 20-story building. The police call it suicide, but Brisker’s best friend, Marc Chance, and ex-cop now a VP of Security for a D.C. based TV network, knows Brisker could never make the jump.

Marc Chance and his love interest, Japanese-American TV producer Grace Enemoto, pick up the trail Brisker was following. But it’s fraught with danger. Brisker’s girlfriend who may have the tapes, is brutally beaten and hospitalized. Chance’s boss Cooley who owns the network, warns him off. And then Chance becomes a target.

Chance and Grace follow the money through Washington’s numerous political action committees, known as PACs. As the bodies pile up, the stakes climb and the suspects are revelled. The surprise twists keep the readers in suspense to the end. Along the way we get insights into big media business and its dependence on political favours.

Frank Wydra lived in Detroit until his death last year. He is the author of a previous thriller The Cure (Dell) which had two printings and translations into German and Korean. Alfred Hitchcock Magazine and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine have published several of his stories.