Bücher von Miller N. E. Miller

When a mysterious mosquito-borne virus wipes out a community of indigenous Hawaiians on the tiny Pacific island of Ni''ihau, it has all the hallmarks of a field test of a state-sponsored biological weapon on unwitting human guinea-pigs. Eager to make his mark, the director of MECCAR''s new sister centre in Indonesia solicits Giles''s help to identify the perpetrators. Fiona''s laboratory skills show it to be a Mexican strain of the West Nile virus, a common and usually innocuous species, engineered to carry a permanently active form of the Achilles gene. Having spotted Stephen Salomon at a virology congress in Mexico City when en route to Jakarta, she and Giles waste no time retracing their steps. Molecular analysis of a blood stain from a swatted mosquito in a ship''s cabin, a day trip to the Maya ruins of Palenque, and an encounter with a deserted Mercedes Benz sow the seeds for a 3000 km road journey through rainforest, mountains, and desert in pursuit of the suspects. At the end of their journey, as they follow the flight path of a private jet from Tijuana on Fiona''s smartphone, they know they must act swiftly and boldly if they are to avert a humanitarian disaster.

The discovery of the Achilles gene by Ahmad Sharif at the Middle East Centre for Cancer and AIDS Research (MECCAR), recently opened in Jordan''s remote Wadi Rum desert, had stunned Western scientists. Each gene having the potential to destroy its own cell should it ever become cancerous, the discovery had promised a universal cure for the disease. But there was a hitch. Although every one of our cells has the gene, only those of a unique Bedouin tribe have the extra piece of DNA needed to turn it on. Dr Stephen Salomon of the US National Cancer Institute claims to have invented such a switch, for which he will soon receive the Nobel Prize. But maverick Oxford don Giles Butterfield suspects his American friend''s invention might be fraudulent. After a sleepless night in his office in Magdalen College, he sets off for Heathrow in search of the truth. When his young assistant Fiona Cameron unexpectedly joins him in Washington, it is the start of a globetrotting adventure the outcome of which exceeds their wildest expectations, presenting Giles with a dilemma of epic proportions.Best Medical Thriller of 2021, BestThrillers.com