While vacationing in Spain, a young doctor finds himself embroiled in a deadly conflict between rival gangs

Peter Ross just wanted a vacation. After years toiling in the radiology department of a large American hospital, he dreams of lying on a Spanish beach with a beautiful girl. The beach proves just as lovely as he hoped. But the girl turns out to be trouble.

Angela Locke is on the run from a pair of gangs waging war over a missing artifact, and she sucks Ross straight into the crossfire. From sunny Spain to rain-swept Paris, Ross’s trip will take him into Europe’s darkest corners. An ordinary man on the run for his life, he must uncover a centuries-old secret, or risk becoming its next victim.

Zero Cool is Michael Crichton's fifth published novel. It was released in 1969 under the pseudonym of John Lange, and later re-released in 2008 as part of the Hard Case Crime series. For this release, Michael Crichton wrote short new framing chapters, in addition to doing an overall revision of the text.