The man who invented medical techno-horror takes you on a startling and chilling odyssey into the origins of life--and death. When an eminent biomolecular geneticist dies violently before his eyes; a doctor must use more than his medical knowledge to explain what he comes to believe is murder; and to stop a scientific breakthrough from becoming a curse instead of a miracle. There was a lot that internist Jason Howard didn't know about Dr. Alvin Hayes. But when the scientist met his sudden end; it all came out with a vengeance--for the academically respected geneticist had led a double life; and the private side was damning. Dismissing official police reports linking Hayes's death to his associations with the sordid side of society; Jason believes Hayes was silenced to keep him from revealing the results of his research; and the secret lies not in the back streets of Boston's erotic underworld; the Combat Zone; but in the high-tech genetics laboratories of the Good Health Plan clinic. Overcoming his own personal emotional problems; Jason turns his powers of diagnosis to deduction; vowing to solve the mystery no matter who tries to stop him. His search will take him from gleaming modern labs to seamy sex clubs; from Beacon Hill drawing rooms to the wilds of the Pacific Northwest and back; before the pieces of the deadly puzzle fall into place. By then; Jason has unearthed the scientific breakthrough Hayes was killed to hide--and has himself become the target of a malevolent cabal; bend on using the origins of life to create a hell on earth. With this disturbing story; DNA research is shown to have a fearful potential; not only through possible mistakes and accidents; but ironically even through success. Splendidly researched and intricately plotted; Mortal Fear is Robin Cook at his prophetic and galvanizing best.