An exhilarating, confident novel involving hardy heroes and nefarious bioscience.
A father fights for his missing daughter in this debut biotech thriller.
Saenger parlays his expertise as a pharmaceutical immuno-oncologist in this novel about widowed single father and former SWAT team leader Max Tyler, who becomes embroiled in a nefarious biomedical scheme. While camping in California, his 9-year-old daughter, Megan, is nearly abducted by an unknown assailant; she’s shot with a tranquilizer dart and becomes gravely ill. Infectious disease specialist Beth Collins, at a nearby hospital, enters the picture to care for Megan. Another clumsy attempt to kidnap the girl occurs as Max struggles with Larry Drake, a disgruntled, drug-addled nurse who’s been committing murders at the hospital. Megan is abducted, along with Beth, who’d tried in vain to rescue her. Max holds the remaining kidnapper at gunpoint, and he confesses that Megan was taken to a secret lab. As Max and special ops expert Mark Hunter frantically plot a mission to save the day, Saenger expands his riveting narrative by offering further details about biotechnology company Viralvector and its diabolical “projects” involving Megan, whom they’d initially targeted long ago. Its chief scientist has collected several kids for viral experiments that allow the company to hijack certain youngsters’ brain cells, spur their intellectual advancement, and create prime candidates for stem cell harvesting. The author describes this process and many medical procedures with the ease of a seasoned clinical scientist. Some readers may find his expert explanations of genetic manipulation to be overly complicated, but they do add more intrigue and mystery to the story. Megan, who later teams up with another kidnapped girl, emerges as a tenacious character with plenty of youthful determination. In the end, Saenger’s villains aren’t nearly as wicked and calculating as readers may want them to be. However, the author’s gripping storytelling and characterization—and particularly his riveting conclusion—more than make up for this.
An exhilarating, confident novel involving hardy heroes and nefarious bioscience.Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-946920-82-9
Page Count: 306
Publisher: TouchPoint Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is the sort of book that stirs one so deeply that it is almost impossible to attempt to convey the impression it leaves. It is the story of today's Exodus, of America's great trek, as the hordes of dispossessed tenant farmers from the dust bowl turn their hopes to the promised land of California's fertile valleys. The story of one family, with the "hangers-on" that the great heart of extreme poverty sometimes collects, but in that story is symbolized the saga of a movement in which society is before the bar. What an indictment of a system — what an indictment of want and poverty in the land of plenty! There is flash after flash of unforgettable pictures, sharply etched with that restraint and power of pen that singles Steinbeck out from all his contemporaries. There is anger here, but it is a deep and disciplined passion, of a man who speaks out of the mind and heart of his knowledge of a people. One feels in reading that so they must think and feel and speak and live. It is an unresolved picture, a record of history still in the making. Not a book for casual reading. Not a book for unregenerate conservative. But a book for everyone whose social conscience is astir — or who is willing to face facts about a segment of American life which is and which must be recognized. Steinbeck is coming into his own. A new and full length novel from his pen is news. Publishers backing with advertising, promotion aids, posters, etc. Sure to be one of the big books of the Spring. First edition limited to half of advance as of March 1st. One half of dealer's orders to be filled with firsts.
Pub Date: April 14, 1939
ISBN: 0143039431
Page Count: 532
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1939
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
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