Runaway Heart
A Novel
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
In this gripping thriller, Emmy Award-winning writer Stephen Cannell combines cutting-edge biotechnology and action-packed suspense, taking readers to the outer fringes of medical science.
What would modern war be like if the front-line foot soldiers were not our sons and daughters, but genetically engineered animals with superhuman strength and speed, and just enough intelligence to understand commands and follow them blindly?
This is exactly the weapon being developed at a base in the desert by a top-secret government agency. Attorney Herman Strockmire, a rumpled man with a very big but defective heart, champion of lost legal causes and the infuriating nemesis of giant corporate polluters, becomes involved when one of his employees is literally torn limb from limb by one of the experimental prototypes.
At great personal risk, Herman, his beautiful daughter and law partner, Susan, and ex-LAPD detective, Jack Wirta, ignore all threats and plunge headlong into harm's way, finding themselves involved in a nightmare beyond anyone's wildest imagination...
Runaway Heart is a fast-paced thriller with memorable characters and a gripping plot that explores the terrifying possibilities of genetic science. This science exists today. The future is now.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cannell's second novel in six months (after Hollywood Tough) is a cop thriller with a futuristic, sci-fi twist. Hollywood Tough's heroes, LAPD officers Shane Scully and his wife, Alexa Hamilton, take a backseat to a new protagonist, fledgling PI Jack Wirta, a hard-nosed ex-cop (former partner of Scully) who left the force on disability. Irascible and jaded, Wirta has been hooked on Percocet since taking a bullet in the spine during a bank robbery shootout. He is called in to help the eccentric, crusading attorney Herman Strockmeyer, founder of the Institute for Planetary Justice. Strockmeyer has dedicated his professional life to pursuing corrupt corporations and various wings of the government. A houseguest of Barbra Streisand's in L.A., Strockmeyer is suing the USDA, EPA, FDA and others to get an injunction against planting genetically engineered corn, which threatens the Monarch butterfly population. When Strockmeyer's assistant hacks into the computer bank of Gen-A-Tech, a prime contractor in the genetic engineering of agricultural products, he uncovers something much more horrifying than dead butterflies: the Feds are creating a vicious manlike creature to replace human soldiers in combat. And when the assistant is murdered, Strockmeyer and his daughter look to Wirta to save the day. Cannell has a genius for creating memorable characters and quirky, gripping plots. Despite overwriting and jerky pacing, this is a fun read. National advertising.
