Gene mutation

Author: Robin Cook [USA]
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-12-01
Features: Biologist Victor's career is thriving, but he suffers from an unspeakable pain in his family life—his wife Martha suffered severe bleeding while giving birth to their first son, David, and had to have her uterus removed. When David was five, they used his sperm and her egg to combine them in vitro and hired a surrogate mother to give birth to their second son, Little Victor. However, soon after, David died of a rare liver cancer. Little Victor is exceptionally intelligent but extremely aloof and indifferent. Worried about her son, Martha begins an investigation and discovers that the deceased nanny, Janice, had cancer identical to David's! Even more astonishingly, one of Little Victor's teachers also died of the same rare cancer!! All the information points to one thing: people of all ages who died of the same cancer have some degree of knowledge about Little Victor's secret. Under pressure, Victor confesses to Martha: before implanting the fertilized egg that gave birth to Little Victor into the surrogate mother's uterus, he had added foreign genes from his experiments. This is precisely why Little Victor is so intelligent. But what about his aloofness? And what about the deaths of those who had crossed paths with him—was it truly just a coincidence? Victor finally realizes that he is facing a living nightmare.