 Author photo by Sean Graff www.seangraff.com |
Seeing RedAll Susanna Beckers wants is a safe life. An American, she grew up in Europe where her brother, who helped support their family with drug deals, vanished under suspicious circumstances. Back in the States, petite Susanna falls in love with a strapping research-MD who takes her to an anatomy lab to see a brain on their first date. Susanna begins her narrative at their midlife when she jogs one sleepless night through the deserted streets of Salt Lake City's research park. She rests at Neurogenesis (NG), the company where her husband is a consultant, only to find dead lab rats arranged in a cross on the staff lunchroom floor, equipment smashed and the cages opened with live white mice scrabbling to freedom. Is it an animal rights protest? Is it industrial espionage related to NG’s nearly approved drug, a breakthrough that promises to do for rage what Prozac did for depression? Or is the break-in related to what Susanna’s husband Ty Lopeta suspects was last-minute cheating on the drug trials? The dramatic turn of events frustrates Susanna’s wish for the extraordinary grace of everyday life — a wish all the more poignant as Ty is seriously ill. Tensions deepen as the couple confronts Susanna’s secret, past attraction to Bob Lystrom, the brilliant scientist-entrepreneur CEO of NG. Susanna also risks her friendship with Bob’s numinous daughter, Favia. Favia’s boyfriend, an animal rights’ activist, stands accused of the break-in. Ty will nearly survive after extremely experimental treatment, but his death and then Bob’s surprise venality — cheating Susanna out of the profits of the drug — drive the book to a climax that includes Susanna’s own high-tech revenge launched via the Internet; the revelation of rogue side effects in an otherwise miracle drug; and the secret of Ty’s own honor-driven complicity in the break-in. The end finds Susanna discovering new strength through a resolution with her long-lost brother. |
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