In the Blood

Rating:
Summary: Genetic engineering at its worst.
Review: I've been reading Robin Cook books and decided to try another 'medical thriller' author. Don Donaldson is an author I'd recommend to anyone who reads Robin Cook. This book was a bit slow to start. In fact, I was tempted a few times to stop reading it. However, after 100 pages or so, things started to pickup. This book shows the dark side of genetic engineering. Although it is a work of fiction, it's scary to think that this may one day be possible.

Rating:
Summary: An Emotional Roller Coaster
Review: IN THE BLOOD, a new medical thriller by Don Donaldson, takes you on an emotional roller coaster ride. First there is a single female physician who has faced a terminal illness..... Leukemia and lived. Then Donaldson takes you into the world of fertility clinics and egg donation. Immediately, he introduces the unbelievable occurrence of donated eggs being stolen and involves you, his reader, in sharing in the search. The roller coaster ride has just begun! Utilizing cutting edge science, ethical issues and the readers' emotional involvement he takes you on a ride of a lifetime. Each character, either good or evil, is very believable in their creative development and descriptions. Like a roller coaster, the story takes you up to the top with both horrific and vulnerable characters. Then you hold on, often with white knuckles, as you turn each page with that same feeling of rushing down the other side.

As a mental health provider, I look for a reading escape that is exciting, fun and has enough of a challenge not to waste my time. Donaldson has done it again with IN THE BLOOD, his previous thriller being DO NO HARM. After two books of this type of entertainment, I have already bought my ticket for the next ride.

Rating:
Summary: A slow start, but well worth the effort
Review: The plotting on this book is complicated enough that it takes a while for the author to set characters and strands of the plot in place -- but once the story takes off, this thriller really moves quickly and will keep you up long after bedtime wanting to find out what happens next after each cliffhanging chapter ends.

The main protagonists/detectives are both physicians: a man (Richard) and a woman (Holly) who live in separate states and don't know each other at the beginning. Somewhat surprisingly for a male author, Donaldson does a great job with creating female characters who are smart, brave, and likable. He even has an OLDER female character (Susan) who is strong, brave, and capable. The villains in this book (and there's more than one) are all men with a desire for money and power.

The plot involves genetic engineering and the theft of some human eggs from the fertility specialist who is holding Holly's eggs (who was made infertile by cancer treatment at a young age). Holly is determined to get the eggs back -- they're her only chance at having her own biological children -- and that means she must find the person who stole them. Working from the most slender of clues, and with the help of Susan, the fertility specialist, she follows the leads back to a dairy farm in Wisconsin where something very odd is happening. There have been some mysterious deaths/disappearances in that small town (where widower Richard is the neurologist who treated three of the people who died so mysteriously).

There's a hint of romance and a roller coaster ride as Holly and Richard try to find out what's killing these people and get Holly's eggs back before anyone else -- including Holly and RIchard -- are killed by the villains.

I'd give this book five stars, but the plot was (when all was said and done) hard to believe, and the book was a bit slow in the first 50 plus pages. But -- keep reading, it's well worth it.