Shortly after her death, while sorting through his mother's mail, Artie finds a letter. It is written to his mother from someone named Sarah, informing her that Artie is the product of a genetic experiment, engineered by Sarah's husband who recently died. Since she herself is not well, she feels she must break her silence and inform Artie's mother of the circumstances of Artie's conception.

Her husband, who had developed a technique for separating human embryo cells had ten genetically identical human embryos implanted in ten different women. Artie's mother was one of those women. Since all of the resulting pregnancies were successful, Artie has the same genetic heritage as nine other young men.

Artie makes arrangements to visit Sarah to learn more about his peculiar situation. She gives him a list of his nine "brothers" and asks him to contact them to explain what her husband had done. Although he is somewhat repulsed by the idea of making contact with these other nine men, Artie feels obligated to honor the dying woman's request.

Through the wonders of the computer, Artie's friend, Welinda, is able to find current addresses for all but one of his "siblings". The first sibling Artie meets soon turns up dead and Artie begins to worry. Are all of his "brothers" predisposed to suicide when confronted with shocking news, or is one of them bent on destroying his genetic equals in a effort to maintain his uniqueness?

The premise of Cellmates has possibilities, but it is not well executed. The story, which is told in the third person, leaps around. At first, it follows Artie in his attempts to establish contact with his siblings. Then the author describes the lives of some of the other siblings. Then back to Artie and Welinda trying to psychoanalyze the siblings. The author makes no attempt to disguise the villain, so although he is unknown to Artie, the reader is not in the dark. This story is basically a thriller, but the only tension that is created comes from the reader worrying which sibling the killer will attack next.

The situation that the author has set up would have been ideal for exploring the nature versus nurture theory. Unfortunately, the reader learns little about the character of any of the siblings, who are rather superficially treated. If the characters are well developed it is easy to care about them -- either positively or negatively. While I did feel a bit sorry for poor Artie being thrust into such an emotional situation, I had little feeling for the rest of the cast, including the villain. I couldn't really even hate him because I didn't know him that well.

This problem is compounded by the ending, which becomes melodramatic, bordering on comic. To make matters worse, the tone of the ending is very different than the rest of the story. I certainly didn't find it as gripping or engrossing as the cover blurbs would indicate. Instead, I found I had to reread substantial parts only days after I finished the book in order to feel knowledgeable enough to write a review.

--Andy Plonka