CRISPR'd
A Medical Thriller
Judy Foreman
- 264 Pages
- February 15, 2022
- ISBN: 9781510769939
- Trim Size: 5.5in x 8.25in x 0in
Description
For fans of Julia Buckley and Tess Gerritsen, a debut featuring a killer in plain sight using a microscopic murder weapon, the cutting edge gene-editing technology: CRISPR.
Boston geneticist Dr. Saul Kramer is on the cutting edge of genetic disease research. Revered among clients at his IVF clinic, he harbors a dark secret. In addition to helping infertile couples conceive healthy babies, Dr. Kramer is obsessed, for his own dark reasons, with an alternate mission as well. In certain patients, he uses the gene editing technology CRISPR to tamper with embryos, not to improve the health of the embryos, but to replace a healthy gene with a deadly mutation. A young female journalist, Sammie Fuller, begins to suspect what he has done when three infants conceived at his clinic die mysteriously, all at about one year old. She and a molecular biologist work secretly in his MIT lab to identify any genetic defects in the deceased children and together make a chilling discovery. Thanks to Sammie’s blockbuster stories, which go viral, Dr. Kramer is charged with murder and winds up in court. In the subsequent dramatic court scenes, his feisty defense lawyer stuns the world with her defense. Set in this uneasy time of genetic engineering with CRISPR technology, Foreman, spins a compelling tale of love, revenge, and murder.
Authors
Reviews
"Perhaps you haven't been "CRISPR'd" yet, but regardless, you should read Judy Foreman's novel (which is also 'novel' as in 'cutting-edge' and thought-provoking). Her mastery of non-fiction in previous books shines through and combines with a well-paced cautionary-tale. An intriguing and very welcome view point." –—George M. Church, Professor at Harvard Medical School and MIT, and author of Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves
“CRISPR holds the key to discovering the horrors unleashed by a vengeful IVF physician. A satisfying and well-paced genetics detective story.” –George Annas, Professor of Health Law, Boston University, and author of Worst Case Bioethics.
"Want to take an incredibly exciting journey to the cutting edge of genetic engineering, the law and crime? This is the book for you. In the expert hands of Judy Foreman, a cast of credible characters in an engaging tale shows how today’s emerging techniques for altering humans might become the stuff of courtroom drama and ethical contention in the very near future." —Arthur Caplan, Mitty Professor of Bioethics, NYU Grossman School of Medicine
“Fans of Jodi Picoult will love this first novel from former Boston Globe science and medicine reporter Judy Foreman. With the care that she brought to her news reporting and scientific books and with an incredible ability to make science understandable for all of us, Foreman weaves a powerful story around new genetic technologies and ancient social and ethical issues: When is killing murder and when is it not? Is vengeance ever justified? I could hardly put down this book and resented every interruption in my reading! For anyone who cares about bioethics, this is a 'must-read': deftly crafted, balancing humor and pathos, and combining courtroom drama with the needed twists and turns of a mystery story. May this be the first of many novels from this skilled author.”—Karen Lebacqz, former member of the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research and Bioethicist in Residence at Yale University, chair of the Advisory Council of the Center for Christian Bioethics at Loma Linda University, co-author of Sacred Cells: Why Christians Should Support Stem Cell Research, and co-editor of The Human Embryonic Stem Cell Debate.