Peter Clement (1) (1948–)

This has much the feel of a Michael Crichton work. It's very much a cautionary tale, that I fear came too late (some studies imply that the cause of many "avant garde" allergies {such a wheat gluten} are caused by the genetic modifications of our foods and pesticides.

It was overall a good book, though the characters were very cookie-cutter for this type of book.

Mutant by Peter Clement is an interesting proposition - a medical thriller, a virus/disease novel, a grand conspiracy, a story of contaminated food, a story of corporate negligence, a story of murder and attempted murder with a few sex scenes thrown in.

Whilst the main thrust of the plot involves corporations genetically engineering food with potentially unknown consequences it turns into an investigation of such with the idea that the consequences are not so unknown but rather covered up, show more and actively so. As things progress it seems that further development and dispersion is taking place for reasons that are yet to be revealed.

It's a pretty good tale, however it could have used some more length to properly cover all the aspects of the corporate negligence and plotting it attempted to bring into the plot, as would have further attention been given to the Farsi speaking security guards which seemed to be addressed rather minimally towards the end. show less

This book was interesting to me, because it involved clandestine stem cell research. I work in medical research, and as it happens we are currently doing a study involving infusions of adult stem cells to treat chronic lung disease. Because of that, the subject matter was interesting. The author got some of the science right, but the research aspect really wrong. Evidently, these same characters were used in a previous novel, but I'm not sure where they can go from here. I had the bad guy show more pegged fairly early, since he had no visible purpose in the story. OK for a very light read....airplane or beach fare. show less

2.5 stars. I may try the next book in the series to see if they get any better. They are quick reads.