Copyright ©1996, ProMotion, inc.
www@acloserlook.com
Harry Lee Kraus, Jr. brings the news home in his latest medical thriller Fated Genes. He interweaves the lives of Brad Forrest, a young, ambitious pediatric surgeon; Web Tyson, an established physician who wants too much to be the next U.S. Surgeon General; and Lenore Kingsley, president of UBI, a huge pharmaceutical company that is engaging in human DNA splicing. These three and many others-Rand Harris, Tammy James, Jimmy Tyson, Julie Forrest, Dr. Matt Stone, and Brad's grandmother Belle-play significant roles in this medical potboiler that holds readers glued to their seats.
A surgeon himself, Kraus knows the territory well. Parts of Fated Genes are so medically precise we cringe; yet it is this very precision that gives the novel credibility. It's all so "scientific," these quotes for example: I'll need lots of fresh tissue samples to do DNA studies, he thought; What is a pharmaceutical firm doing with an aborted fetus? he wondered; and, the most telling of all, Just because we can doesn't mean we should. Not only is Kraus a physician and a Christian, he also knows how to picture biblical truths about the value of human life in good contemporary fiction.
Like many of today's novels, this one weaves together several threads in short scenes that change rapidly. Occasionally readers may wish the author had extended a scene rather than jumped to another so quickly, especially with so large a cast of characters.
Fated Genes is a very good read, so good, in fact Kraus may be to the medical world what John Grisham is to the legal territory!
Copyright ©1996, ProMotion, inc.
www@acloserlook.com