Class Action by
Catherine Arnold
hbk out March 00
Published by Hodder Stoughton
at £16.99
This book is a conspiracy theorist's dream - or nightmare. If you believe that the CIA arranged the deaths of Kennedy and Monroe, or that MI5 was behind that fatal crash in the tunnel in Paris, then this novel should be right up your street.
Florida attorney Karen Perry-Mondari, gradually recovering from the cumulated effects of several family tragedies, is asked to defend Herman Gaylord, an educated, cultured vagrant who is accused of murdering a fellow homeless man. She discovers that the dead man, a long-time alcoholic, had perfectly healthy internal organs at the time of his death, and she is drawn on to investigate the links between the county hospital and a nearby medical research establishment. It transpires that the top secret Consolidated Research Enterprises is turning out genetically modified people, against which crops of wheat and tomatoes pale into insignificance.
The plot shifts into high gear and its path has more twists and turns than the proverbial corkscrew, with a final twist which makes us yearn for a simple screw-top bottle! As the layers of secrecy are peeled away and the organisation takes steps to maintain its cover, the attorney and her fellow investigators fear for their careers and their freedom. Karen herself is falsely accused of drug racketeering and her home and possessions impounded. But most chilling is the plight of Dr. Martin Bradford, a researcher at CRE, who is deeply unhappy with the conditions imposed upon him by his employers; he is approached for help, which he gives despite knowing that a previous scientist who rebelled against the set-up is now incarcerated in a psychiatric institution. The only thing to detract from the tension is the fact that, this novel being one of a series, we know that Karen will survive to fight injustice another day.
Class Action by
Catherine Arnold