Private screening / Richard North Patterson.

The nation is stunned silent when presidential hopeful James Kilcannon is shot dead, point-blank, while sharing the stage at a benefit concert with his rock-star girlfriend, Stacy Tarrant. Fiercely independent attorney Tony Lord defends the assassin in a sensational trial that erupts into the media event of the decade. But the most shocking gambit ever witnessed in the history of television has yet to unfold.

As America watches, a mysterious and ruthless figure known only as Phoenix takes to the airwaves in the ultimate act of high-tech terror. Holding the wife of a wealthy newspaper mogul and Stacy's manager hostage, Phoenix mounts a televised trial of his own, in which Stacy Tarrant and Tony Lord are helpless defendants, millions of viewers are jurors, and -- unless his chilling demands are met -- Phoenix is the unstoppable executioner....