From Publishers Weekly
When an outbreak of malaria in Maryland selectively kills African Americans with the sickle cell gene, and the mutant parasite at the root of the epidemic has not one but many coordinated alterations, it looks like a genocidal design. While African American epidemiologist Melanie Anderson hops continents in search of the surmised white-supremacist culprit, her collaborator, white FBI agent Robert Cavanaugh (a chief figure in Kress's previous bio-thriller, Oaths and Miracles) is out in the woods collecting mosquito samples and dodging marriage to his girlfriend. As clues surface that the U.S. government may be covering up evidence of the epidemic's source, Cavanaugh and Anderson work alone to unearth the true story. Although Kress excels at wringing drama out of hard science, her plot is jerky and contrived: the right things seem to happen but for no organic reason, and the ending (involving unexpected benevolence from on high) is sure to frustrate readers. One fine plotting device is Kress's interpolated "Interims": eloquent, synecdochic vignettes of the epidemic and its effects on everyday life. Yet despite these, and a fascinating twist involving the IRA, the Indian population of London and the genetic history of the sickle cell trait, few are likely to catch fever over this uneven malarial tale.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--Ce texte provient d'une édition qui n'est plus publiée ou qui est non diponible.
From Kirkus Reviews
Another biotech thriller featuring the long-suffering, messed-up FBI agent Robert Cavanaugh (Oaths and Miracles, 1996). Consigned to a backwater office in southern Maryland, his relationship with science writer Judy Kozinski already coming unraveled, Cavanaugh notices a sudden upsurge in the incidence of fatal strokes reported by local hospitals. Inexplicably, almost all the victims are black. Meanwhile, at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, militant black doctor Melanie Anderson examines blood samples from black Senator Malcolm Reading, dead of a thrombosis induced by malaria. But Reading carried the sickle-cell trait, which should have made him resistant to malaria. More alarming still, this ``malaria reading'' attacks only those with sickle-cell. Cavanaugh's thrombosis epidemic results from an outbreak ofmalaria reading. To Melanie, the evidence adds up to attempted genocide, a theory her superiors reject. She seethes as the CDC and the Army cooperate to stamp out the epidemic. Cavanaugh, meanwhile, has been seduced by his ex-wife Marcy, but only so she can ditch the family dog. Still, Cavanaugh and Melanie ascertain that someone deliberately bred malaria reading as a biological warfare agentthey suspect the secret CIA lab at Fort Detrick, not the too-obvious suspect the FBI publicly arrestand that their bosses are cynically covering up the whole affair. They're right about the conspiracy, as it turns out, but wrong about its source. Agreeably understated, impeccably crafted, engagingly peopled, and, this time, the offstage villains are perfectly suited to the swirling, murky atmosphere of paranoia. --
Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--Ce texte provient d'une édition qui n'est plus publiée ou qui est non diponible.
