New York Times-bestselling author Robin Cook takes on the ripped-from-the-headlines topic of harnessing DNA from ancestry websites to catch a killer in this timely and explosive new medical thriller.When the body of twenty-eight-year-old social worker Kera Jacobsen shows up on Chief New York City Medical Examiner Laurie Montgomery’s autopsy table, at first it appears she was the victim of a … was the victim of a tragic yet routine drug overdose. But for Laurie and her new pathology resident, the brilliant but enigmatic Dr. Aria Nichols, little things aren’t adding up. Kera’s family and friends swear she never touched drugs. Administrators from the hospital where Kera worked are insisting the case be shrouded in silence. And although Kera was ten weeks pregnant, nobody seems to know who the father was–or whether he holds the key to Kera’s final moments alive.
As a medical emergency temporarily sidelines Laurie, impulsive Aria turns to a controversial new technique: using genealogic DNA databases to track down those who don’t want to be found. Working with experts at a start-up ancestry website, she plans to trace the fetus’s DNA back to likely male relatives in the hopes of identifying the mystery father. But when Kera’s closest friend and fellow social worker is murdered, the need for answers becomes even more urgent. Because someone out there clearly doesn’t want Kera’s secrets to come to light . . . and if Aria gets any closer to the truth, she and Laurie might find themselves a killer’s next targets.
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Using genealogy to find the secret lover who killed the woman.
Love this genre. The twists and turns held my attention.
Poorly written, worthless verbiage to increase the number of pages. Some unexpected murders but the characters had been so slaughtered by this time that it didn’t matter. Maybe someone other than the author wrote the book.
So so. Genetics part was interesting. Some of the book was similar to others. Others have been better.
I hadn’t read a Robin Cook novel in quite some time, I grabbed GENESIS right away; I love medical thrillers. Lucky for me that I was already familiar with the author because the prologue would have discouraged me from getting to chapter one. Basically, the prologue is the scientific description of human conception told in some of the most flowery, purple prose I have ever read. So if you already know about the birds and the bees, skip to chapter one. The rest of the book however is very well written and thankfully stylistically does not resemble those first pages.
The setup is established very slowly and in great detail – like everything else in this laborious novel.There is all the domestic drama regarding the Montgomery-Stapleton family, hospital politics, Laurie’s job as Chief Medical Examiner. Then there are the descriptions: crisp and precise and often seemingly never-ending; do we need four pages or so for a character to enter a restaurant and reach their table? Or pages and pages on buildings, a subway ride, a bicycle ride, and a couple of autopsies irrelevant to the plot, but still accompanied by lengthy lectures? The main storyline is buried under an extraordinary amount of unnecessary details, slowed down even further by repetitions of entire events and conversations.
Then there’s Dr. Aria Nichols, the most unappealing heroine I have ever read. Aria is obnoxious, rude, vulgar, unprofessional, unpleasant; she hates men, she is selfish, insensitive, and a charmless sociopath. She is supposedly extremely brilliant yet she’s not the one who comes up with the DNA suggestion. Almost immediately upon meeting her, I wished for her swift and very painful demise. My hate for the loathsome Aria greatly surpassed anything else: the fate of the good guys became secondary, and I didn’t even care about the uninteresting murderer, unless they obliged in offing Aria. Had Aria been remotely palatable, the book would have been way more enjoyable; not great, but decent enough; her presence ruins everything. Let’s put it this way: Dr. Aria Nichols is no Lisbeth Salander or Jane Doe.
GENESIS overflows with all sorts of information on a myriad of topics, always excruciatingly detailed, except for the computer game Minecraft; I wonder why. Since the number of pages in the book was already too high by half, why not add even more pointless filler! There were some interesting plot twists: one – well, two actually, because one would have made the book shorter, perish the thought one should come to the point relatively quickly! – which was a great shame as the sole bright light was extinguished; the other twist was totally unexpected and ever so thrilling but came too late.
I identified the baddie almost the minute they were introduced, courtesy of the very unsubtle clues provided by the author. Had it not been so evident to the reader, it might have made the book slightly more compelling, because most of the characters – save one who should have seen the signs – couldn’t possibly have guessed sooner than they did. The ending, unfortunately, was very predictable as well as underwhelming. In conclusion, if you’re looking for an exciting medical thriller, look elsewhere, GENESIS is not it.
I have been reading Robin Cook’s medical thrillers for years. I really enjoyed this one and that it incorporates new and modern advances in genealogy. To use someone’s DNA and family tree to locate a suspect was very interesting.