I enjoy combining science, wit, and satire in my stories. I’ve observed life for 75 years, practiced food-animal veterinary medicine, and used molecular biology to earn a PhD in microbiology. The evolution of virulence in pathogens has long been an interest of mine. From observation, I’ve learned never to underestimate the destructive power of a well-intentioned fool, and that no situation is so bad that an idiot can’t make it worse. Heroes are flawed. They make mistakes, but they grow. They kick themselves in the ass and move on. Their opponents aren’t supermen, either.
Nature, climate change, and human stupidity threaten to create a pandemic.
A post-doctoral student at the University of Minnesota and a physician from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) struggle to save the country from a deadly viral epidemic as eccentrics in a snowbound Wisconsin village clash with the CDC and the drug dealers who unwittingly unleashed the threat.
Pandemicincludes my two favorite themes: molecular biology and viral infections. It introduces a problem I’ve seen discussed in a scientific journal. If a gene editing tool (CRISPR/Cas 9) is used to raise pigs whose hearts have important human proteins so they are recognized as “self” by a human’s immune system, the waiting lists for heart transplants would be a thing of the past. However, a virus, avirulent in the pig but fatal to people, could accidentally be carried along with those hearts. The ensuing coverups make things exponentially worse.
New York Times-bestselling author Robin Cook takes on the cutting-edge world of gene-modification in this pulse-pounding new medical thriller.
When an unidentified, seemingly healthy young woman collapses suddenly on the New York City subway and dies upon reaching the hospital, her case is an eerie reminder for veteran medical examiner Jack Stapleton of the 1918 flu pandemic. Fearful of a repeat on the one hundredth anniversary of the nightmarish contagion, Jack autopsies the woman within hours of her demise and discovers some striking anomalies: first, that she has had a heart transplant, and second, that, against all odds, her DNA…
Gerritsen’s Life Support is a suspense-filled cliffhanger that makes use of spongiform encephalitis, a brain disease caused by prions. Remember Mad Cow Disease? It’s a type of problem that stretches the meaning of “infection.” The story is based on the fictional use of fetal pituitary cells from aborted fetuses to return youthful strength and vigor to elderly rich people. The group making millions from this obtains fetuses from a Mexican village where the cows are dying. A year later, several of their patients die of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, an extremely rare human type of spongiform encephalitis. Corpses accumulate and suspense builds during the coverup.
'If you like your crime medicine strong, this will keep you gripped.' Mail on Sunday
Dr Toby Harper's quiet night is disrupted when a severely ill man stumbles into ER. She suspects a viral brain infection. But shortly after trying to treat him, he disappears without a trace.
When a second person is admitted with the same symptoms, she starts to trace the deadly infection backwards. And begins to suspect foul play.
Skin Tightmixes suspense with satire. Mick Stranahan, a retired state investigator, kills a would-be assassin with a stuffed Marlin. To stop further attempts on his life, Stranahan investigates his list of old enemies, including a hitman of dubious talent, an inept personal injury lawyer, an incompetent surgeon, and an irritating journalist. The mix of bumbling criminals and satire of authorities and politicians is hilarious. I relish tales with suspense, humor, flawed protagonists, and sendups of people in power.
Bestselling author Carl Hiaasen serves up a humorous helping of "taut, fast-paced action...crisp and hot" (The New York Times).
After dispatching a pistol-packing intruder from his home with the help of a stuffed Marlin head, Mick Stranahan can't deny that someone is out to get him. His now-deceased intruder carries no I.D., and as a former Florida state investigator, Stranahan knows there are plenty of potential culprits. His long list of enemies includes an off point hit man, a personal injury lawyer of billboard fame, a notoriously irritating TV journalist, and a fumbling plastic surgeon.
This witty and wryly humorous murder mystery features two amateur sleuths. Maggie, a reporter from up north, is vacationing on an island off the coast of Florida when a murder takes place. She investigates, is stumped, and convinces her irascible boss, editor C. B. Greenfield, to come down and help. Thereafter, she grouses about him as he puts his formidable intellect into solving the mystery.
Studies since the publication of the book have found it to be in error on a few minor points (e.g., the DNA encoding the Shiga-like toxin ofE. coli O157:H7is on a virus infecting the E. coli cells, not on a plasmid), but that doesn’t make the story outdated. The toxin is as nasty as it is portrayed, no matter how the E. coliacquired it, and the blame leveled at the meat-packing industry and the USDA for the contamination that causes the problem is spot on. The only reason the disease isn’t more common is that most fast-food restaurants deliberately overcook their hamburgers.
When his daughter, Becky, becomes ill from bacterial poisoning, Dr. Kim Reggis, a cardiac surgeon, is determined to track down the cause, no matter what the cost.
I became fascinated with 16th-century and 17th-century Europe after reading Don Quixote many years ago. Since then, every novel or nonfiction book about that era has felt both ancient and contemporary. I’m always struck by how much our environment has changed—transportation, communication, housing, government—but also how little we as people have changed when it comes to ambition, love, grief, and greed. I doubled down my reading on that time period when I researched my novel, Dulcinea. Many people read in the eras of the Renaissance, World War II, or ancient Greece, so I’m hoping to introduce them to the Baroque Age.
Dolça Llull Prat, a wealthy Barcelona woman, is only 15 when she falls in love with an impoverished poet-solder. Theirs is a forbidden relationship, one that overcomes many obstacles until the fledgling writer renders her as the lowly Dulcinea in his bestseller.
By doing so, he unwittingly exposes his muse to gossip. But when Dolça receives his deathbed note asking to see her, she races across Spain with the intention of unburdening herself of an old secret.
On the journey, she encounters bandits, the Inquisition, illness, and the choices she's made. At its heart, Dulcinea is about how we betray the people we love, what happens when we succumb to convention, and why we squander the few chances we get to change our lives.
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