A smart, engrossing tale that entertainingly uses science.
A genetic algorithm intended as a cure for cancer becomes part of someone’s nefarious and deadly experiments in this techno-thriller.
After losing both parents to cancer, oncologist Dr. Juan Gutierrez devoted his life to finding a cure. While researching generations of species at the pharmaceutical company AgriMed, Juan uncovers an evolutionary pattern. From this, he derives an algorithm that he hopes will combat cancer. Meanwhile, FBI Special Agent Nate Carrington is investigating cases of lethal attacks by animals, such as dogs and birds. These cases are linked by the animals’ DNA evidence, which suggests some form of genetic manipulation. Nate soon determines that someone has pilfered Juan’s algorithm for experiments that ultimately include human subjects. To make matters worse, the stolen algorithm is an older, less stable version and leads to a number of people becoming infected with a life-threatening virus. One of the stricken may be Juan’s new romantic interest, Kathy O’Reilly, who happens to be a survivor of an animal attack. She and her Nevada rancher parents, Frank and Megan, are unwitting participants in an experiment that puts many in danger. Nate and Juan have little time to find the culprit and a cure before the death count among humans starts rising exponentially. Rothman’s (Perimeter, 2018, etc.) tale moves at a steady clip. Dialogue, in particular, is concise; in one scene, Juan converses with his boss over the phone and police officers in person, and the concurrent exchanges are clear and coherent. Scientific terminology is likewise comprehensible, thanks to the author supplying context or Juan simply explaining terms to an individual. While characters are dynamic, especially the O’Reillys, the most memorable is Jasper, a stray dog Frank and Megan take in. Readers know from the beginning that the hyper-intelligent canine is a lab escapee. But despite Jasper’s tie to the experiments, Rothman zeros in on his empathy and fierce loyalty, traits that make his human counterparts even more likable. In useful addenda, the author elucidates on two subjects from the narrative, genetically modified organisms and gene therapy.
A smart, engrossing tale that entertainingly uses science.Pub Date: Feb. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-79027-123-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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