The Green Trap

A professor learns his scientist brother made a discovery worth killing for in this powerful thriller from a Hugo Award–winning author.
"Bova brings his usual imaginative plotting and attention to detail to this contemporary thriller, and fans of the author, as well as those of Michael Crichton-style science thrillers, should be well pleased." —Booklist

Microbiologist Michael Cochrane has been murdered. His brother Paul wants to find out who did it . . . and why.


Accompanied by a beautiful industrial spy, Elena Sandoval, Paul follows the trail from California to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Along the way, a lot of people seem to be interested in getting in their way, or discovering what they know. It's clear that Michael was working with cyanobacteria, the bacteria that crack water molecules and release free oxygen. It's less clear why this would get anybody killed. Or why oil billionaire Lionel Gould wants to pay Paul and Elena big money for the details of Michael's work.


Then the truth emerges: Michael had found a way to get cyanobacteria to crack hydrogen out of simple water molecules. A process that could be industrialized, producing enough hydrogen to cleanly power the world. Practically free fuel, out of one of the planet's most abundant resources: water.


No wonder everyone, from Middle Eastern heavies to hired domestic muscle, suddenly seems to be trying to get in Paul and Elena's way.


As the world's secrets—and their own—teeter in the balance, both Paul and Elena must decide what to do before it's too late . . .

"[A] cautionary but hopeful thriller . . . Modern twists and a genuinely surprising ending." —Publishers Weekly