Nanotechnology seems to be the new buzz word among thriller writers at the moment.

The science of working with 'mini-robots' a billionth of a metre across - that's about 1/80,000 of the diameter of a human hair or ten times the diameter of a hydrogen atom - has fired the imagination of, among others, Dean Koontz, Michael Connelly and Michael Crichton.

All three have used the science as a base for their new novels - and all three could not be more different.

My pick of the bunch is Dean Koontz's By The Light Of The Moon (Headline, £18.99). It's a tense, fast-paced read, full of humour, drama and shocks - and the scientific side is fairly easy to comprehend, too.

Artist Dylan O'Connor and his autistic younger brother, Shep, pull into a motel for a bite to eat and a sleep. Hours later, Dylan finds himself bound and gagged and injected with a mysterious fluid by a 'lunatic doctor' who claims Dylan will be the carrier for his 'life's work'.

After finishing with Dylan and his brother, the eccentric scientist turns his attention to comedienne Jillian Jackson, and she, too, is injected with the strange liquid.

The doctor tells his victims that he is being pursued and that they too are now targets - and if they are caught they will be killed.

Dylan and Jillian are sceptical, until black cars with tinted windows scream into the motel car park and Jillian's car, with the mad doctor at the wheel, bursts into flames.

The pair, along with Shep, who is oblivious to all the excitement, hit the road and try to find the identity, and purpose, of the mysterious doctor.

Soon the injected liquid - containing artificial nanoparticles - starts to spread through its hosts and each of them develop strange powers, which will help in their quest for the truth.

Michael Crichton, the man behind Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain and ER, gets in on the nanotechnology act with Prey (£17.99, Harper Collins).

The predators may be too small to be seen with the naked eye, but they are no less deadly than the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.

They are created in a hi-tech top secret laboratory in the Nevada desert. An experiment into artificial intelligence, funded by the American military, which goes horribly wrong.

A cloud of nanoparticles has escaped from the lab and is reproducing. The 'micro-robots' work as a swarm, are intelligent and learn from their experience. Their goal is to take over the human population.

Only one man can help, unemployed computer programmer Jack Forman. He is finally starting to enjoy his new role as stay-at-home dad, while his wife works all hours at the research labs of Xymos Technology. But she is beginning to act strange, and Jack suspects an affair.

So when he's called in to help with her secret project, it seems like the perfect opportunity to see what his wife's been up to. But he is not ready for what he finds.

Crichton knows how to grip the reader's attention and Prey is no exception. It's pulsating, edge-of-the-seat stuff, although at times the science gets a little complicated.

In Chasing The Dime (Orion, £12.99), Michael Connelly gives a rest to his famous characters, Detective Harry Bosch and former FBI profiler Terry McCaleb, and introduces us to nanotechnology entrepreneur Henry Pierce.

Pierce, who recently split from his partner, has a new apartment and telephone number. But when he checks his messages for the first time, he finds that someone had the number before him.

The messages are for a woman called Lilly, and she seems to be in deep trouble. For reasons unknown even to himself, Pierce decides to track down the mysterious woman.

His search draws him into a world of prostitution, sex websites and secret identities, and soon his own orderly world is thrown into chaos. Not only his life, but his company, is in danger. A terrifying thriller, with shades of Alfred Hitchcock.

Jonathan Kellerman has, so far, steered clear of nanotechnology, but who knows, even he may be tempted in the future.

His latest offering The Murder Book (Headline, £12.99), is a good old-fashioned detective yarn.

The book referred to in the title is anonymously sent to Los Angeles police psychologist Alex Delaware. It contains crime scene photographs of murder victims dating back decades.

When Delaware shows it to his friend, gay detective Milo Sturgis, one picture catches his eye - a photo of a teenage girl who was murdered 20 years ago.

Sturgis himself investigated the killing as a rookie cop but was mysteriously taken off the case. The killer, or killers, were never found.

Sturgis and Delaware decide to unofficially reopen the case and soon they are up to their necks in corruption, property scams, messed-up rich kids and cover-ups.

Last, but not least, is Clive Cussler's new novel, Fire Ice (Penguin, £10.99), although this time he is helped by fellow writer Paul Kemprecos.

This is a story from the NUMA Files (that's the National Underwater Maritime Agency for the initiated), and features Kurt Austin, a sort of aquatic James Bond.

The world is threatened by a gangster called Razov, who believes himself to be a direct descendent of the last tsar of Russia.

He has devised an evil scheme to bring a change in the global climate, turning the United States into a wasteland and Siberia into lush farmland. But will he succeed?

Fire Ice is cheesy, corny, and filled with clichs, but very entertaining. Pure escapism.

Updated: 17:30 Tuesday, January 14, 2003