Raising Abel - Hardcover

The veteran authors of a highly popular Native American historical fiction series (People of the Wolf; People of the Fire; etc.) offer a futuristic tale with a provocative spin on the human cloning theme. Anthropologist Scott Ferris has secretly cloned embryos from glacier-frozen prehistoric cells and implanted the embryos in host mothers: now he has four-year-olds with superior traits that debunk the "dumb Neanderthal" myth. He aims to derail creationists by revealing these living links to the human evolutionary chain, but is gruesomely murdered before he can do so. Meanwhile, a bitter ex-mistress of politically connected TV evangelist Billy Barnes Brown tells the FBI that she found a death list with Ferris on it, but she meets a fiery death before she can cut a deal with the Feds. When Scott's sister, Veronica, goes to a remote ski lodge looking for a hidden letter from Scott, she finds the lodge occupied by Rebecca Armely and her son, Abel, one of the Neanderthal children, but she can't find the letter. Scott's friend Bryce turns up to help with the search, and the fundamentalist hit team soon sends all of them on the run. The Gears lay credible anthropological and biochemical groundwork for this flight of fancy, and the nail-biting resolution is first-rate.
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Scientists Scott Ferris and Amanda Alexander are lovers, true, but their first passion is their work. As anthropologist geneticists, they were conducting a theoretical study of genetic cloning. When the two are found dead--beaten, chained to the floor, and burned--Scott's sister Veronica, a paleoanthropologist, is left with many unanswered questions. Then a third scientist working with the couple in Tel Aviv is killed in similar fashion, a fourth coworker, Bryce, is on the run, and Veronica hears a message from her brother, left on her answering machine before he was killed, instructing her to go to a certain cabin if something happens to him. At the cabin, she finds Bryce and Abel, an odd little boy whose mother is a childhood friend of Scott and Veronica. Who will be the killer's next target and how are the murders connected to answering crucial questions about humanity's evolution? With a Crichton-like mix of scientific intrigue and pulse-pounding suspense, the Gears deliver a fascinating exploration of the frontiers of science. This popular duo's steadily increasing audience will love this one. Mary Frances Wilkens
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