Wealthy Joe Lassiter, owner of an international investigative firm, receives a midnight phone call that his sister and nephew have died in a house fire. What makes the fire seem less than accidental is that an unknown man has been badly burned while escaping from the house. A pathology report confirms that Lassiter's sister and nephew were murdered before the fire was set. The hospitalized man is Lassiter's only hope for determining why his sister and nephew were killed. The situation becomes entirely baffling when Lassiter's nephew is disinterred and his remains incinerated at the cemetery. When the arsonist escapes while being transferred to jail, the chase is on . . . literally.

As this complex plot unfolds and the two plots lines begin to merge, we learn that Lassiter's sister and nephew are one of many mother/son combinations who have been brutally murdered. With the help of his associates, he's able to tap into various data bases and sees a pattern emerging. Traveling to Italy after learning that his sister's alleged murderer is there, Lassiter is drawn into a web of intrigue that becomes sinister and more and more involved.

The Genesis Code kept me riveted for most of the book. Occasionally, I'd become irritated with Lassiter. For example, he finds a man rifling through his hotel room. When the man walks toward him, Lassiter doesn't take defensive evasion even though his self-defense prowess had been mentioned. He just stands there, as though 'The Mattress', as he's mentally dubbed the intruder, intends to shake hands. Later on, when he finds himself trying to evade two killers in a heavily wooded area, I kept wondering when his military training would kick in. This man owns a million-dollar investigative firm, and he's less effective than The Hardy Boys.

An unread letter from the physician to the priest also added to my irritation. Read the letter, I kept muttering. Waiting for Lassiter to remember and read the letter, which proved to be an integral key to understanding the whole issue, became an exercise in frustration.

Praise is due to the author's handling of the biotech/genetic explanations. I was amazed and fascinated as the scientific theme unfolded. The ending is fairly predicable, although I was dumbfounded by some of the graphic violence. If you're looking for a story which does incorporate high-tech scientific information into a riveting plot, The Genesis Code will keep you entertained as you try to figure out 'The Why' yourself.

Bottom Line: Ruthless villains, a blind-luck hero, complex plot. Frequently an edge-of-your-seat story.

--Linda Mowery