THE DEVIL’S CURE

A strong tale about cancer research, and the first adult novel by Oppel, author of 16 juveniles (among them the megaselling Silverwing,1997).

Leading researcher Dr. Laura Donaldson’s breakthrough cancer cure fails to prove out. Cancer has taken her mother. And now her younger sister Sandra, after a double mastectomy and with her cancer recurring, heads south for a quack Mexican cure. But then Laura happens onto an amazing blood sample in which huge bunches of white T cells overwhelm and chew up cancer cells. Whose blood is this? Well, it’s David Haines’s, and Haines is set to die in ten days for the murders of famous doctors spearheading research. A Bible zealot raised in a cult much like David Koresh’s, Haines believes the soul lives in the blood and that only God can cure illness. So, will former med student Haines allow Laura to withdraw 20 ccs of his blood, plus take a bone marrow sample, to save mankind? Of course not, not even to have his execution commuted to life without parole. But Laura gets a judge to allow the sampling, and while Laura draws his blood the prisoner escapes. Haines, from his jail cell, has already set up a branch cult by way of the US mail, and its members help him hole up and change his appearance. Meanwhile, obsessive FBI agent Kevin Sheldrake, who led the team that first captured Haines, sees the criminal’s hand in a new doctor murder, and, while protecting Laura from Haines’s vengeance (she is a top researcher and target), joins her in tracking the killer to various sites sure to attract him. Big dilemma: If Haines gets killed, the possible cure for cancer (which Haines calls “The Devil’s Cure”), will go down the drain. Can this fount of perfect anticancer blood be captured alive? Not bloody likely.

A tremendous grip for the opening hundred pages before the usual demands of serial killer fiction gouge the page. Even so, a great read.