Pierre Tardivel's life hangs on the flip of a coin. His father died of Huntington's disease so he's got a 50-50 chance. He's moved to Berkeley to do post-doctoral work on the Human Genome Project, mankind's attempt to map DNA. He meets (and later marries) Molly Bond, a psych professor who happens to be a fluke telepath. She prods him into investigating the complexity of American private health care insurance. Pierre's Canadian expectations of health care are at odds with US realities. He succeeds in purchasing a policy but is agog at what it implies for those holding one.

While walking on the campus, he and Molly are attacked and almost killed by a member of a local neo-Nazi group. It soon becomes evident that a number of murders, both solved and unsolved, are linked to the victims' soon-to-develop genetic diseases and the neo-Nazi group. Pierre also discovers his insurance company had policies on the large percentage of them. Could it be that they have decided that it is easier to assassinate them rather than face large payouts when the diseases take hold? Are the neo-Nazis trying to pick up where their predecessors left off (albeit on a smaller scale)?

Robert J. Sawyer asks a number of probing questions about where genetic science is leading us. Our bonus is that he has wrapped it up in a story that is both touching and action-packed. If you enjoyed his Nebula-winning novel, The Terminal Experiment, this one will knock your socks off.

Rodger has read a lot of science fiction and fantasy in forty years. He can only shake his head and say, "So many books, so little time."