A perfectly calibrated thriller, memorable for how closely it cleaves to reality.
Cleary’s blistering debut sees a pharmaceutical lab create a life-extending compound that, if not properly controlled, could unravel civilization.
In Laguna Niguel, Calif., Tom Shaw is the CEO of Pure Industries, a struggling pharmaceutical lab hungry for products that will ensure its financial stability. Shaw’s private life brings even more worry; his wife is terminally ill, and his 10-year-old son is growing up lonely and depressed. Futures brighten, however, when Shaw’s chief scientist, Rachael Leo, tells him that a lab spill has contaminated a compound called Legum. Originally designed to ease muscle pain, Legum now seems to be halting cell deterioration in mice. Early tests show that a human life could perhaps be extended to about 400 years. But this breakthrough doesn’t go unnoticed: Governmental intelligence networks monitor labs like Pure Industries, and Nathanial Windlass, special security advisor to the president, sees the very existence of Elixir (as Leo has named it) as a threat to national security. There’s also the threat presented by ruthless millionaire Theodore Croft, who’s been tipped off by an insider to Elixir’s potential. He’s willing to maim and murder anyone standing between him and Leo’s secret recipe—which could earn Pure Industries $1.2 trillion. Into this combustible mix, author Cleary adds undercover cop Pat Dolan, who’s infiltrated Croft’s squad of brutal mercenaries. Yet it’s the thought-out, well-crafted premise, not explosive violence, that will draw readers in, as when Shaw describes the world he’d create: “If we play this right, for example, we can offer new-style mortgages, pensions and commodities to suit extended lifestyles.” Equally intriguing are the arguments against life extension, including limited jobs, space and natural resources. Cleary also lucidly presents the science: “Reduced gene expression,” says Leo, “means the production of proteins essential to [converting food into chemical energy] slows down.” Only occasional punctuation gaffes trip up this limber narrative. What this author does best are quick, careful renderings of both the main and secondary characters, especially scenes starring his villain: “Life was too short to be poor. Theodore Croft never would be.”
A perfectly calibrated thriller, memorable for how closely it cleaves to reality.Pub Date: July 3, 2013
ISBN: 978-1466389250
Page Count: 356
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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