A Code for Carolyn

A Genomic Thriller

By: V. Anne Smith

Narrated by: Lucy Rayner

Carolyn’s parents did not, after all, make genomics history by synthesizing her genome in a lab. She has known she is the “Human Hoax” ever since a high school genetics exercise revealed she has trisomy X - a chromosomal abnormality - yet no synthetically constructed genome would have such clear traces of natural conception.

Many years later, as a molecular biologist, Carolyn hopes her colleagues never learn of her embarrassing origins. But when someone ransacks her office and lab, she finds professional embarrassment is the least of her worries. Someone believes she has the results of her parents’ last, secret experiments, and is willing to kill to get them. But all she has from her parents are their genes - can she find what else they may have left her before somebody else does?

In a not-so-distant society, where corporations wield as much power as nations and the line between corporate employee and state authority is blurred, the chase is on. Carolyn may have just too little time at hand to unravel the mystery of her parents’ final days and to realize the deep consequences for the future of mankind.

This fast-paced novel is followed by an extensive science chapter where the author provides a nontechnical primer on modern genetics and on the speculative biology behind Carolyn’s code.

©2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

got totally lost! A degree in microbiology or genetics might be a tad useful in understanding the book’s contents.

I liked Lucy Rayner’s narration - her range of male & female voices & accents is fantastic and was the only thing that kept me listening for as long as I did. I got totally lost, however, in the scientific terms, theories, & jargon for microbiology, genetics etc. The detailed descriptions & explanations were overwhelming. At one point I nearly phoned my niece who has a doctorate in microbiology for help. The thriller elements of the story did manage to be quite exciting but then would be drowned in the aforementioned scientific details. In the end I gave up.