Book description
What could the Shroud of Turin, a conservative Southern senator, and an
entrepreneurial researcher have in common? Here politics, religion and
bioscience collide in the latest novel from the master of the medical
thriller. Senator Ashley Butler is a quintessential demagogue whose
support of traditional American values includes a knee-jerk reaction
against virtually all biotechnologies. When he's called on to chair a
sub-committee introducing legislation to ban new cloning technology, the
senator views it as a keystone to his political future. As a
consequence, Dr Daniel Lowell - inventor of a technique that will take
stem-cell research up to the next level - sees a barrier being raised
before his biotech start-up. These seemingly opposite personalities may
clash during the Senate hearings, yet the two men share a common
failing. Butler's hunger for political power far outstrips his genuine
concern for the unborn; while Lowell's pursuit of massive personal
wealth and celebrity overrides any real considerations for his patients'
well-being. Further complicating their confrontation is the confidential
news that Senator Butler has developed Parkinson's disease - which leads
the senator and the researcher into a Faustian pact. But in attempting
to utilise Lowell's new technology prematurely, the therapy leaves the
senator with the horrifying effects of temporal lobe epilepsy - causing
seizures of the bizarrest order. Taken straight out of tomorrow's
headlines, Seizure is a cautionary tale for this age when new
biotechnological discoveries are pulling us ever further into a
promising yet frightening new world.
A bestselling author for many years, Robin Cook has written
twenty-one previous novels. Originally practising in Boston, he now
lives and works in Florida.
