Crime Zero: A Novel

by Michael Cordy

Overview

Genetic engineering promises a world without violent crime—at a terrifying cost—in this near-future sci-fi thriller.

The death penalty is no deterrent. Prison reform has proven useless. With violent crime on a steady rise, Project Conscience offers a solution that seems too good to be true. And a powerful cabal of scientists, politicians, and law-enforcement is ready to do anything to make it a reality.

FBI criminal psychologist Luke Decker is disgusted to learn that his superiors are embracing the controversial venture. And when Decker learns of a shocking secret from a condemned killer on death row, he is plunged into the terrifying intricacies of a monstrous conspiracy.

Now Decker’s only ally is brilliant geneticist Dr. Kathy Kerr—his former lover and the brains behind the original Project Conscience. Together they must find a way to stop a catastrophe that threatens to alter the course of human evolution.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061841866
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	01/17/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	608,853
File size:	666 KB

About the Author

Michael Cordy, a former marketing executive in Great Britain, left the rat race to pursue his dream of novel writing. He is the author of the international bestseller, The Miracle Strain, and lives outside London with his wife, jenny.

Editorial Reviews

In his second novel, Cordy revisits the genetics motif of his notable debut, The Miracle Strain, this time envisioning a chilling near future when a steely female FBI director and her sycophant virologist plot to alter human biogenetics and create a crime-free, female Utopia. In the year 2008, forensic psychologist Luke Decker, director of the behavioral sciences division of the FBI academy at Quantico, is at odds with his boss, FBI director Madeline Naylor, who believes criminals are genetically predetermined, not shaped by social conditioning. Decker is surprised to discover that his former lover, the brilliant geneticist Dr. Kathy Kerr, is now working for a California biotech lab. In collaboration with Naylor and her worshipful accomplice, Dr. Alice Prince, Kerr is conducting super-secret research to alter the genomes of males in hopes of curtailing their inborn violent tendencies. When Kerr is told that her theories have been implemented already, in a covert study in which prisoners were subjected to a lethal early strain of her genetic magic bullet, she realizes she's being used. Although the furtive trial caused many prisoners' deaths, it has also drastically reduced violent crime in L.A. for close to a decade. Asked to endorse the illegal study to swing the upcoming election in favor of the first female presidential candidate, Kerr refuses to join in the coverup and is marked for death. Meanwhile, Decker visits San Quentin, where a condemned serial killer gives him some very bad news. Kerr, now romantically reunited with Decker, confirms this frightening fact with DNA testing, and suspense heightens with the worldwide dissemination of a doomsday virus. Showing more twists than a spiraling double-helix of human DNA, the plot has rough edges and loose ends, but these are minor inconsistencies in Cordy's futuristic and timely gender-bender. Agent, David Chalfont. (July) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Genetics figured in Cordy's debut, The Miracle Strain, so it's hardly surprising to see it surface again here. In the near-future, scientists have found a way to isolate the genes that cause violent behavior in men, and a project to alter the genetic makeup of serious offenders is underway. Then FBI forensics specialist Luke Decker discovers that the men behind the project are up to no good.

Library Journal