BLOOD MEMORY SOCIETY

A doctor must aid a handful of people with life-changing abilities, all of whom are targets for assassination, in Field’s debut thriller.

Dr. Will Dunbar is relaxing in the Bahamas when he gets a message from West Point pal Col. Ross Chapman. Ross convinces the doc that D.C. needs him—it’s a matter of national security. In Washington, Will meets a panel of individuals, from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the CIA Director. It seems a secret society is in trouble. The group, the Inherited Memory Society, comprises people with a memory-boosting genetic mutation responsible for a massive spike in human advancement in the last couple centuries. Someone recently attacked secured facilities to kill IMS members and destroy their cell samples. Since Will, a reproductive endocrinologist, discovered ubiquitin’s role in miscarriages (a protein tied to the mutation), he may be able to help “restore” the IMS population. Later, at a Florida safe house, Will and IMS physicist Victoria Van Buren narrowly avoid an assassination attempt. Field’s enthralling premise showcases a special trait (the IM in IMS) that’s both fascinating and believable. This necessitates an exposition-heavy plot, which, though never tedious, limits action scenes and accelerates Will and Victoria’s inevitable romance. The thriller abounds with exacting prose: a jet sucking “cool morning air into its red-hot compressors where the molecules of oxygen were compressed tightly, then saturated with a high-octane fuel.” And the adrenalized final act imperils Will, Victoria, and even Will’s Bahamian buddy, Tiny, while Field gives the narrative several real-world ties with clever references to historical figures and monuments.

Methodically maps out its concept; an admirable start to a series rife with potential.