Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Genetic engineering

KILLING DRAGONS: Order of the Dolphin, Book One by Kristie Clark – Environmental Thrillers, Navy SEAL Dolphins Sci-fi, Human-Animal Communications Thrillers

A search for the truth behind Lusca, the legendary sea dragon, leads to areas far more menacing than a mere myth in Kristie Clark’s Killing Dragons: Order of the Dolphin.

Eva Paz is a doctorate-level marine biologist at the Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences (RIMS), performing research on whistle-signature spectrograms. Even though Eva believes she’s close to a breakthrough in dolphin-human communication, her statistics may not be enough to keep the grant she needs to continue her work and support her employment at RIMS. Her connection with a petite Atlantic bottlenose dolphin named Taffy, an animal trained by the Navy, and Taffy’s mate, Finn, go back thirteen years during a horrific time in Eva’s life.

During that time, Eva met Thomas Sternberg, a Navy SEAL diver who changed his career path to a pediatric oncologist. He’s also Eva’s ex-boyfriend.

Luis’s mysterious death (boyfriend to Eva’s mother) raises concerns about the welfare of her family since she becomes the sole supporter; holding onto that grant is now a necessity. Even more disturbing is the sizeable conical tooth found near his corpse—a sign to the locals that Luis fell victim to none other than Lusca, the mythological sea dragon.

Julian Gulliver, a notorious investor, approaches Eva, hoping that she’ll take up his offer to support her research while requesting her assistance to identify a predator that’s been attacking Atlantis, his open-ocean fish farms. Unbeknownst to Eva, Julian hires Thomas as his expert diver for his newly-opened dive shop in the expensive Parrot Tree resort, a legal cover for his illegitimate business transactions.

Meanwhile, Taffy’s pectoral fin washes ashore with another conical tooth.

Heartbreaking as that is, Eva discovers something else. Taffy is pregnant. As Eva’s problems build with additional mysterious deaths and Finn earmarked as the target monster, the last person she expects to have back is Thomas. Danger only heightens when he joins her cause, trying to solve the mystery behind the Lusca myth.

Rising author Kristie Clark spins a gripping debut that is more fact than fiction. Clark sets her story in Roatan, the largest and most developed of the Bay Islands in the Western Caribbean. Her book opens with a glimpse into the life of Eva Paz—a devoted marine biologist whose research focuses on advanced human-and-animal communication with Navy dolphins trained to locate sea mines—before all things sinister break lose.

Luis’s horrendous death fosters locals’ belief in the legendary Lusca.

To Eva, Luis’s demise only sends a reminder of her horrifying past when her brother died. From that point, scenes continually flip from backstories to the present and alternate between protagonists (Eva, Thomas, and even Taffy, the dolphin!) and antagonists (Julian and Ignacio).

The events in Killing Dragons cover little over seven nail-biting weeks.

To keep her narrative flowing, Clark employs a variety of literary elements. One is her journal entry style that opens each chapter, which mentally prepares readers for location changes.

High on the literary-element chart, though, several unresolved situations among the characters roll from one unsettling scene to the next; add to that, terror continues building as the mysterious monster takes more lives amid the ominous presence of Julian and his minions. If that wasn’t enough, Clark throws one more item into the mix: the slow-burning-sexual tension between Eva and Thomas’s strained relationship.

Clark skillfully weaves in a flurry of fascinating facts covering everything from environmental issues with the fish farming industry and the reality of tainted fish to the severe effects on humans and the latest treatment in oncology/cancer research. Clark includes incredible advances in marine life research, as well.

Brilliantly executed, Killing Dragons undoubtedly whets the literary appetite of those who like their sci-fi thrillers with a bit of sexy in the mix. Clark has no trouble holding her own in the vast field of thriller authors – and readers will be happy to learn the next book in the Order of the Dolphin series may splash on the scene very soon!

June 1, 2021
REVIVAL (Gaia Origin, Book 2) by Dan McWhorter – Colonization Sci-fi, Genetic Engineering Sci-fi, Artificial Intelligence Sci-fi

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an increasingly crucial technological development in human affairs, both for its enabling and disruptive powers. Revival, the second volume in the Gaia Origin series, gives us an astonishing glimpse of what role AI could play in the future of the human race. It’s both scary and exhilarating.

A small group of people have escaped a near-dead Earth and traveled lightyears to reach a new Earth-like planet named Gaia by its human visitors. Chief among them is Evan Feldman, his wife, daughter, granddaughter, and a few Feldman extended family members. All of them were the masters of an Earth-bound corporation called Telogene, a multi-billion-dollar megacorporation dedicated to extending the possibilities of human life with revolutionary medical science and technology. Their transportation across the universe on board the Kutanga. The spaceship is large enough to contain some four thousand humans in suspended animation awaiting the day when the human race can establish a new home now that the home planet was all but destroyed by a disastrous and deadly plague.

But here’s where the book takes an unexpected, radical turn. It seems that the passengers, as we would generally think of them, are all dead – that is, their biological, physical bodies are all gone. Instead, an AI super-intelligent computer named Aneni cares for and keeps the essence of these humans alive. Instead of natural bodies, they have become androids in humanoid form. Virtually all human functions have been duplicated except for the need to eat. The most remarkable is their brain functions, all of which have been “recorded” to function in their new bodies. Who they were as humans, their ability to think, feel, remember, love, hate all remain intact. Every function, including their thoughts, is monitored and potentially controlled by Aneni. Including the ability to modify their thoughts and feelings if the computer believes it would contribute to their well-being. If they become too troubled, they can be digitally “rolled back” and the troubled portion of their lives eliminated.

So, are they still human? And what happens when they realize the computer Aneni is more akin to them than human beings? And who can tell when even their memories are not reliable, and, instead, a composite of other people’s memories kludged together to reconstruct a human being whose brain was too damaged when their earthly body died? What happens when they realize their essence is as editable as any other digital data: able – like any other data – of being backed up, or erased altogether?

Before the story ends, readers will experience a fully imagined, detailed alternate world. Eyes will be opened up to an exploration of DNA and brain science, and even the theories of relatively obscure writers such as Zecharian Sitchin and Erich von Daniken, both of whom hypothesized that we, the homo sapiens of Earth were created or planted there by alien astronauts.

Some sci-fans may see echoes of the book Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan, a novel that allowed a human’s essence to move from body to body. The recording and manipulation of that same essence in Gaia: Revival takes that manipulation a significant step further in its creation not only of digital humanity but in a benevolent AI responsible for protecting that humanity at a cost measured by the very concept of what is a human being.

Don’t expect this book to deliver a collection of sci-fi shootouts. Only a few characters stand out, notably Evan, the founder of Telogene, who yearns for decades to see his long-dead wife brought to life, and their daughter Lily. She best expresses the anguish of trying to come to terms with this extreme version of being human. If you enjoy a thinking person’s science fiction, more in the tradition of Isaac Asimov than Robert Heinlein, this is a book for you.

McWhorter has pulled off something original and rare. This is science fiction at its speculative best. The issues it raises will remain with you long after you’ve finished reading the book. Highly recommended.

January 6, 2021
The KORPES FILE (The Korpes Files Series Book 1) by J. I. Rogers – CyberPunk Sci-fi, Genetic Engineering Sci-fi, Dystopian, Space Opera

Set in a world that is ridden with lethal radiation from a cataclysmic event, J. I. Rogers’s debut novel and the first novel of her 942 series is a definitive addition to the science fiction genre.

Life in The Korpes File is lived almost entirely indoors and relies highly on the advancement of technology to support life on a planet that is no friend to the living. Technician Nash Korpes is a member of the Diasporan people, who face harsh discrimination from the Korlo people of Korlune, where this saga is set. Nash is a genetic anomaly that gives him the appearance of his ancestors long ago. Because of this, he is recruited as an official subject within the government research organization KMR & D.

Nash has his reasons for signing over his life; his mental state is deteriorating, and his growing medicine regime are becoming too much and even dangerous, he decides he has to find a way out.

Spanning ten years of rising tensions across Korlune and within Nash’s mind, The Korpes File is packed with a large cast of characters told from numerous points of view. The interlocking plotlines can be hard at times to keep track of, but Rogers kindly includes a handy character index and map for reference, and they’ll need it. Readers are immersed straight into Nash’s world of unquestioned conformity and strict societal expectations. Still, the story itself is unapologetic to readers and rarely takes the time to explain itself, which, in a way, is its defining quality.

The truth is hidden deep, and J. I. Rogers scatters little details calling back to earlier points that help to unravel the overarching mystery. In a way, there are two mysteries. One within Nash’s mind and the nature of his condition and subsequent treatment, whereas the other is of a resurfacing war of destruction that will change life in Korlune forever. For both these mysteries, Rogers’s narrative style involves abrupt changes throughout the novel that are frankly disruptive. Still, they are useful in creating a sense of chaos one would face in a world of rising tensions and competing realities.

When presented with a large number of characters, it may seem like a daunting task to achieve necessary amounts of character development, and Rogers does just that, again and again. Just as attachments begin to form, the chaos prevalent in the novel tears them away from the forefront. Nash himself is present throughout the story but becomes a very different person from the beginning of because of all the mental, emotional, and physical trails he goes through spanning the ten-year passage of time. The story is only just beginning, however, and Nash’s story is far from over.

The Korpes File is a dynamic debut from J. I. Rogers that is sure to delight any die-hard science fiction fan looking for something new. The second novel of the 942 series was published this past March and continues the trials and tribulations of Technician Nash Korpes trying to find his way in a turbulent and dangerous world.

The Korpes File won Grand Prize in the CIBA 2018 Cygnus Awards for Speculative Science Fiction.

January 15, 2020
Darklight 1: The Substance of Shadows by John Wells – Hard SciFi, Genetic Engineering, Military SciFi

In the aftermath of the Second American Civil War, a feisty, determined genius develops a new way to explore outer space making himself and those he cares about the central target in an interplanetary war in this first-of-a-series Space Opera, Darklight 1: The Substance of Shadows by John Wells.

Isaac “Crash” Tyson gets his nickname from refusing to give up. When faced with any problem, he just crashes on until whatever is in his way is resolved. A mathematics genius, Crash developed a new field of math, one that will open up space in such a way that earth explorers can take to the stars without any of the usual limitations. He only has to convince P-Quan, the Planetary Governor of Earth and his colleagues at the World Science Council to fund the project. They are all part of the PLAG (Planetary Government) a group of bureaucrats as crooked as they are ruthless.

Surprisingly, P-Quan goes along with Crash’s proposal; in fact, he’s had his eyes on Crash for some time. He plans to acquire all of Crash’s test data and develop the technology for the exclusive use of the PLAG. Of course, if Crash has a problem with this, P-Quan has the power and the position to crush Crash, permanently.

Crash is a genius all right, one who’s smart enough to be suspicious of P-Quan’s motivations. He takes on three assistants: the beautiful Lynn, in charge of operations, Nessi, the tech guy, and a hard-boiled policeman, DP, who is even more suspicious than his boss, and utterly loyal. After receiving the funding necessary, Crash gets busy and constructs the Spatial Exclusion Wave Generator (SEG) in a short time.

The first test of the SEG successfully canceled the spatial field’s interaction with matter and energy. To put it in layman’s terms, the SEG created a Space Hole, an enormous glass-covered hole. So formidable is its power that Nessi pronounces that Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction, has been set loose. The good news: SEG works, creating the space hole Crash predicted. The bad news: before Crash can do anything more, PLAG rushes in for the kill.

And in a distant galactic outpost, the drama on Earth is being monitored by the Cren Empire who have their own reasons for destroying Crash’s mission.

The Substance of Shadows is a classic sci-fi of Operatic proportions, positing futuristic technologies, armaments, deep thought, and hidden dimensions. It links a home planet under threat to a small intrepid group of rebels who dare to go beyond known limits, and in doing so, realize that the universe is far more complex and dangerous than any of them could have imagined.

At the offset, Wells paints a compelling, if bleak, scenario of a Second American Civil War predicated on some current political ideologies. The newly divided country will soon need what Crash can supply in the form of energy resources. In Crash, Wells offers an empathic leader for the Earthlings and other interstellar beings who will need guidance after the dust settles.

Our review of Darksight II: Conflagaration can be read and enjoyed here.

March 11, 2019
CORRALLING KENZIE: BOOK 4 of the WINTERS SISTERS by Joanne Jaytanie – Genetic Engineering, Fantasy, Romance, Psychics

Jaytanie veers off the sister track with her introduction to brand-new characters in her latest sizzling Winters Sisters Series read, Corralling Kenzie.

Kenzie Vaughn leaps out of her bed in the dead of night, responding to a cry from her horse. She discovers Boone shot and bleeding out. Kenzie contacts her neighbor, Victory Winters, who happens to be the closest vet in the area. While Victory is tending to Boone and Kenzie, Logan Mendoza, one of the DNA-enhanced Special Operations Command team (SOCOM) who investigates her ranch, is confident that the notorious Kaleidoscope Group (KG) used the mysterious shooting to get to Kenzie. Further probing indicates that Kenzie’s background may provide essential clues, particularly from her brother, Marcus who was sent to an institution when he was seven.

It is during an attempt on Kenzie’s life that she encounters Marcus. He, in turn, sets up a meeting with SOCOM to divulge the connective tie with KG. Indeed, KG is in the process of furthering their diabolical DNA experimentation, and Kenzie is a key player. More information unfolds with each day as Kenzie develops friendships with the Winters sisters. During Logan’s assignment to guard Kenzie, the two become close, and their friendship evolves into a steamy romance. Logan determines to keep her safe even while he’s away on a brief mission. But upon his return, Kenzie is not around. She’s been kidnapped!

For fans who are caught up in the lives of the Winters sisters, they are in for a big surprise with Jaytanie’s fourth installment. Up to this point, books one thru three have mainly concentrated on Victory, Payton, and Willow and KG’s sinister schemes directed toward the girls. But with the addition of the sisters’ neighbor Kenzie, Jaytanie opens the door to a whole new world of outsiders who have fallen prey to DNA tampering. Although pseudo-realism in design, this chilling realm into the dark side of medicine is reminiscent of the grisly experiments on children throughout history.

Jaytanie does a stellar job balancing the bad and ugly with the good, and “good” comes in various forms, the most obvious from the alpha-male SOCOM team and the Winters sisters. But on a deeper level, Jaytanie has created relatable characters; their near-realistic personas are riddled with strengths and weakness, even on a romantic playing field. Certainly, when Logan and Kenzie get their mojo on, it’s steamy. Leading up to those moments, Jaytanie sets an example of what a beautiful friendship should look like—slow but steady.

As with all of the books in this series, Corralling Kenzie functions perfectly well as a stand-alone read. There is richness when readers start from the very beginning of the series. Let’s just say that Jaytanie is a master of all things and will thrill and delight new readers as well as her loyal fans with this new installment.

The exciting aspect of this series is that book four does not complete the set. Closing on a major cliffhanger, Jaytanie has much more in store for her beloved audience. Stay tuned!

October 29, 2017
WILLOW’S DISCOVERY by Joanne Jaytanie – Romantic Thriller, Military, Genetic Engineering

More danger lurks around the Winters Corporation with Willow as the next target in Willow’s Discovery, book three of the romantic thriller series by Joanne Jaytanie.

Willow enters her office one morning to find it completely trashed. Fortunately for them, the Winters Corporation’s files weren’t touched. But Wyatt Farraday, Tristan’s brother, believes that this was an inside job and he thinks Willow should use her newfound aura skills to interview the corporation’s staff in an attempt to uncover a mole. The interviewing process leads to clues that Biotec (connected to the infamous Kaleidoscope Group) is indeed spying on the Winters Corporation.

Meanwhile, Willow plans to meet with a potential buyer for her parent’s old complex. But when she gets there, things go from eerie to dangerous as a strange man attempts an attack. Although Willow narrowly escapes, she can’t shake the memory of the event – which is understandable – but moreover, there is something about the man that seems familiar… Willow is shocked to realize she knows the man’s voice. Now, if only she can place it.

Willow’s experience is nothing less than unnerving. Yet, she has no idea that there will be more attempts on her life. Amid unsettling scenes, a burgeoning romance ripens between Willow and her protector, Wyatt. Whether or not Wyatt can successfully shield her from harm remains to be seen, especially when she finds herself face-to-face with her stalker.

Winters series’ fans have much to look forward to in Jaytanie’s third installment. Willow’s Discovery is a nail-biter and as more familial secrets surface, danger mounts for Willow! Jaytanie surrounds Willow with both favorite and dark characters from the previous novels—plus a few new members—and then places her cast within settings that are a balanced mix of engaging dialogue, suspense, romantic tension, and steamy love scenes. Of course, as with Victory and Payton in books one and two, Willow not only discovers but also must find a way of embracing her own set of telepathic abilities in order to survive the road ahead.

Joanne Jaytanie aptly incorporates back-stories from the previous books a little at a time and savvy readers new to the series will want to go back and read from the beginning. Each book is truly a stand-alone story, but readers of the romantic thriller genre won’t want to miss one word of Jaytanie’s hot, steamy action scenes and compelling storylines. Jaytanie closes Willow’s Discovery with an eye-opening cliffhanger—a perfect set-up for book four, Corralling Kenzie.

Thrilling and tantalizing, Joanne Jaytanie’s third book in the Winters Sisters series, is sure to please loyal fans and have new readers begging for more in Willow’s Discovery.

August 24, 2017
CHASING VICTORY: The Winter Sisters, Book One by Joanne Jaytanie – Romance, Thriller, Sci-Fi, Psychics

Greed, power, and genetics combine with a steamy love story to stir up an action-packed, hot read in Joanne Jaytanie’s Chasing Victory: The Winters Sisters, Book One.

Responding to a cryptic phone call from an old college classmate, Victory Winters, veterinarian and geneticist, makes her way through the foothills of the Olympic Mountains to the agreed upon meeting point. Spotting him from a distance, Victory’s excitement quickly turns to dread when shots ring out.

To make matters worse, Victory observes a local police detective at the scene – and not in a law-enforcement capacity, either. She can’t go to the cops, and she’s terrified the killers know she witnessed the murder. Needing a safe space to retreat to, Victory flees to her sister, Payton, who is residing in a motorhome at the San Francisco Fairground for a dog show.

Author Joanne Jaytanie is off and running with a tension-driven novel, opening with a gripping scene. Jaytanie sets the stage for her story by featuring Victory—a vet who combines telepathy with acupuncture to heal dogs. Victory is also close to finding “a genetic link between the canine world and the human world,” an endeavor that has promising potential to cure diseases in humans. This work of hers makes her a hot commodity – so hot, in fact, others will go to great lengths to gain control of her and her work.

Two entities are indeed keeping track of our heroine. One, Tristan Farraday, a special ops hunk from the U.S. military sent to protect Victory. And second, a nefarious group headed by the malicious Lawrence Braxton, a genetics corporation. Of course, our gal doesn’t know about Braxton’s intentions when he sends her a rather flattering job offer which is where the proverbial screws tighten, and the story takes flight.

Jaytanie shifts character POVs which increases tension gives her the opportunity to develop her characters and drives the story forward. There are some proofreading errors, but on the whole, this book is a good start for the first in the series. Jaytanie adds chapter cliffhangers, sprinkles in romance and everything sinister, and proves her worth through rich descriptions and excellent dialogue all to produce a flurry of narrative twists to make a fast, fun read.

April 26, 2017
“THE BOREALIS GENOME” by Thomas P. Wise and Nancy Wise

When technology, genetics, biology, and the quest for eternal life combine, what could possibly go wrong? Quite a bit, it turns out. The Borealis Genome begins as a smooth, ambling tale told through the eyes of some of its characters in vivid detail. Scenes are intricately painted in warm, pacifying colors. However, these scenes are juxtaposed with psychological disconcerting subject matter along with some gruesome and disturbing events. With each turn of the page of this YA/New Adult thriller, the ticking clock speeds up.

Brutally violent murders are plaguing Philadelphia, perpetrated in zombie-like fashion, mostly by adolescents. We relive a young boy’s torture by two of his own family members before he’s left in a pool to drown. We see the world through the eyes of an observant 12-year-old boy, Tommy, trying to be tough enough to withstand the rough ‘play’ of the boys he is hanging with. We, the readers, wonder if he’ll meet a similar fate.

If you listen to the news reports, all these deadly incidents are isolated: There is no zombie-virus; there are no zombies. Meanwhile, Tim has cause to think otherwise. The pursuit of some connection to the seemingly random killings across the Northeast becomes his obsession, involving his fiancée and his best friend via cryptic text messages and secret meetings. Will they find something to link these events together? And if they do, will they be able to do anything about it?

Dr. Denat is the director of computing sciences at a facility researching cures for Alzheimer’s disease and he is Tommy’s father. Dr. Denat is the mastermind behind an artificially intelligent program that can restore memory function by transplanting those memories to a new “host.” In this way, the company, named Environmental Consciousness Ltd. (E.C.), can sell the means of extending one’s life through an engineered person made from your own DNA and memories, albeit edited – think Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – but even better. It’s similar in concept to Being John Malkovich – except that you have your own “John Malkovich” after you die.

Tommy goes happily along with his dad to work, as he has before, and we can see his pride in his father as they enter the research facility. We see the center through Tommy’s twelve-year-old perspective as he fluctuates between being awed by the glass and architecture and his father’s position and then becoming bored when he is reminded by his father to sit quietly while in his office.

The ancient Mr. Oldham, the owner of the company drops by and invites Tommy to view one of his experiments. Tommy obediently follows him to his lab where he views Dr. Oldham’s experiment, at first, with resignation, then curiosity, and then disgust. Dr. Oldham is pleased with Tommy’s inquisitiveness and patience. Tommy is sweetly naive, but intimidated in the research center’s sterile and laboratory surroundings. However, apprehensive begins to set in as he begins to comprehend what he was just shown by the ancient Dr. Oldham.

We wish Tommy would have more apprehension—much, much, more.

From here the story takes off at breakneck speed as we learn about the Dr. Oldham’s secretly intended purpose for the research. And he believes Tommy might just be the missing element that he has been searching for to achieve his own personal goals for his research.

The reader is given glimpses of E.C.’s rosy marketing efforts to potential elderly clientele Jurassic Park-style – from a moving tram behind a protective barrier. What they don’t see is that sometimes biology throws in a monkey wrench by mutating its viruses, computer programs always have bugs, and human error, and other unpredictable elements come into play. E.C.’s artificially intelligent program, like HAL, becomes a self-protective force corrupted by the uploaded consciousness of many minds. Tim’s friends end up fighting not only for their own lives, but for the future of humanity.

The Borealis Genome takes on a unique perspective of the zombie vs. humans’ tale. For it is a tale of the ancient quest for eternal life, but one using the latest in high-tech, state-of-the-art scientific research that creates its own type of Black Death.

Tom and Nancy Wise’s children contributed to the book’s storyline; they provided the clever cover art and, undoubtedly, to the text messaging most adults would find undecipherable but adds credence to the story to YA and New Adult readers. Adults who also enjoy a good zombie story with a twist (that’s a little gory, but also intellectual) will enjoy this YA thriller. It might, just might infect your own thoughts and memories more than you might realize….

The Borealis Genome won the Grand Prize Award in the Dante Rossetti Writing Competition for YA and New Adult Fiction, a division of Chanticleer Blue Ribbon International Writing Competitions.

December 14, 2014
An Editorial Review of “Dark Seed” by Lawrence Verigin

Genetic engineering, murder, corporate-conglomerate profiteering, Interpol, and a plot to control humanity make Dark Seed, by Lawrence Verigin, a suspenseful thriller novel.

When jaded journalist Nick Barnes learns that Dr. Carl Elles has contacted him to say that Barnes’ recent article about the positive contributions of Naintosa Corporation is all wrong, Barnes feels compelled to educate the scientist about information laundering—the strategic planting of false information in the media so the planting organization can quote the media later for their own benefit. “It makes total sense,” Dr. Elles replies. “Naintosa employs that strategy on a regular basis.” Nick was about to explain to the scientist why he needed to check Dr. Elles’ information, when the scientist soon proves to Nick that the journalist is the lazy dupe who just published Naintosa’s propaganda in a complimentary article.

Nick Barnes is a likeable, self-deprecating, and disillusioned investigative reporter who has been burned before. He now seems incapable of personally investigating much of the information that falls into his lap, preferring to play it safe. However, the time is 2000, so computerized data and communication systems were not as widely available as they are today.

Nick agrees to help Dr. Elles write an exposé about the actual results and implications of Naintosa’s genetic engineering projects. Then Elles is murdered and suspicious events cause Nick to realize that both he and Dr. Elles’ daughter Morgan are next on the hit list. They team up and run for their lives.

Through the data in Dr. Elles’ notebooks and clues revealed through meditations and dreams, they discover terrifying links between corporations that produce genetically engineered foods, agricultural chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. The implications are so wide-ranging and so frightening that soon Nick and Morgan find they can no longer trust anyone. And they become more and more convinced that they cannot event trust the food that they eat.

The author’s personal knowledge of Seattle and Maui, as well as the city of Vancouver, and other places in British Columbia, Canada, shine through with the vivid and detailed descriptions of these locales as the characters race through them. Morgan and other secondary characters are not fleshed out in great detail, but their roles serve to advance the plot efficiently. Verigin deftly includes enough scientific information to ground this “Lab Lit” novel while keeping the reader entertained and in suspense.

Dark Seed: No One Knows What Evil Grows, is a strong debut novel by Lawrence Verigin that adeptly tackles the pertinent and socially relevant topic of GMO’s with tight writing and fast-paced action. This thriller’s premise of international corporations controlling the food supply and sacrificing human health for the sake of profits is so plausible that it is horrifying. Readers will find themselves rapidly turning the pages to see what happens next in this disturbing “OMG this could really happen” novel.

July 3, 2014