ELIXIR

A researcher on the brink of a breakthrough begins work at a big pharma firm only to discover that his fears about the company's morals are totally founded.

Medical researcher and physician Frank Garfield is onto something. His work with telomeres shows promise in extending life beyond its normal bounds, though only his rats have reaped the benefits thus far. His research could benefit the child cancer patients he sees at Boston’s St Mary’s Children’s Hospital, but his mentor, Jackson Atlas, is concerned that the technology could be exploited by bad actors as a genetic Botox. But when Atlas is shot dead in his home, he can't protect Frank from the forces he designated the “pimps and whores” of the epigenetic world, and soon Leona Lang and her son, Dalton, corner Frank into working for UNICO Pharmaceuticals. Frank’s a good guy through and through, and the promise of a fast turnaround time for his child cancer patients convinces him to continue his work out of the company’s Litchfield lab, but he’s skeptical about what the Langs really want. Detective Sean Brody, who’s assigned to the Atlas murder, feels an immediate connection to Frank, and they start dating once Frank is cleared of Atlas' murder, though Sean doesn’t like the idea that the guy he’s seeing is doing shady research for a private company with too much money. When Dalton promises Frank he’ll do anything it takes to get his cooperation, the anything is such a clear echo of Atlas’ warning about pimps and whores that it puts Frank on high alert. As the drug trials show promise, the Langs each develop secret plans to get the magic drug recipe for themselves, resulting in a fast-paced backstab-a-thon targeting Frank and all those closest to him.

The sort of page-turner whose over-the-top plot and self-awareness make it all the more fun.