Genesis Code

Blue Magic, the latest designer drug linked to a rash of overdoses, might explain the needle mark on the arm of a young woman found dead in her Kansas City apartment. But when Star reporter Rich Azadian digs deeper, the clues point to a far more explosive story: MaryLee Stock was a special protégée of evangelical megapastor and power broker Cobalt Becker, who is poised to deliver his followers and the presidency to a firebrand right-wing senator in the next election. When Azadian sets out to prove that MaryLee’s death was no accident and she may have been carrying Becker’s genetically enhanced baby, the stakes become life itself.

In 2023 America—bankrupt, violently divided by the culture wars, and beholden to archrival China—the rules of the game are complicated. With the danger mounting, the dead bodies of young women piling up, Chinese agents circling, and the US Department of National Competitiveness moving in to quash his investigation, Azadian’s only option is to go rogue, assemble a team of brilliant misfits like himself, and begin the fight of his life to find out who is killing these women and why, and if any others like them may still be alive.

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"A thrill ride through the dangerous intersection where the human genetics revolution and aggressive big power rivalries meet." —Richard Clarke, former White House terrorism czar and New York Times bestselling author of Against All Enemies

"Genesis Code is both a high-octane thriller exploring what could happen if international politics drive the human genetic revolution and a compelling love story touching the core of what it means to be a good old-fashioned human being. Read this book and let the conversation about the future of our species begin." —Sanjay Gupta, CNN chief medical correspondent and New York Times–bestselling author

“Genesis Code is a highly original and thoroughly gripping account of a nightmare that may yet prove all too real. I read it in one sitting—I could not put it down. A thrilling tale written with heart-pounding authority.”
—Kati Marton, author of the New York Times bestseller, Paris—A Love Story

"A spellbinding odyssey into our genetic future. Jamie Metzl is a supreme storyteller who entrances his readers with deep and surprising insights into science, politics, and the human condition."—Eric Garcetti, mayor of Los Angeles

“An old-fashioned hard-boiled thriller . . . Metzl knows his science, and the detail is elegantly done while the novel moves at a nonstop pace over 41 days. Metzl provides a believable look at a not-too-distant future where science, politics, religion, economics and the ability to report the "truth" are all inseparably bound together.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Metzl offers up a tense vision of the near future with this science fiction thriller.” —Publishers Weekly

"Metzl... has a strong command of the financial, political and bioethical questions at the heart of his fast-paced dystopian novel."—Washington Post

"The plot is stellar and well paced. . . . The science on the DNA enhancement research is fascinating. . . . Fans of sci-fi and mystery will definitely enjoy Genesis Code."—Portland Book Review