MURDER IN DESIGNER GENES

Malibu, California. The sun has just come up and there is no fog along the beach. Suddenly all hell breaks loose. Retired Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Richard Greene’s wife, Jenny, discovers the gruesome corpse of a man wedged between rocks at the foot of a cliff. There should have been blood, lots of it, because one of the man’s legs is missing, severed just below the hip, the frayed edges of his jeans exposing a fresh stump. All identification, including fingerprints, has been removed, the only clue, a peculiar hand-embroidered design on the right-rear pocket of his jeans. Was it a revenge killing, a hate crime, the work of a satanic cult?

Inspector Greene, in L.A. to deliver the keynote speech at the International Forensics Symposium, suspects the bizarre presentation is the work of ALOPEX, master of disguise, scourge of Scotland Yard, purposely designed to draw the Inspector into another deadly game of chess. When Alopexs’s first taunting postcard arrives, the Inspector’s worst suspicions are confirmed.

Alopex’s victims are always members of the medical profession who have through financial influence or membership in the “old boy’s club,” circumvented the judicial system, their patient’s deaths never avenged. His latest victim, Dr. Louis Bronsib, a lustful egomaniac, covets a Nobel Prize at any price. In bed with organized crime, he ruthlessly tests an untried AIDS vaccine in Africa where he becomes Alopex’s quarry.

When the young son of a Greek shipping magnate dies after mistakenly receiving a bone-marrow transplant containing hyped AIDS-virus instead of Bronsib’s “miracle designer genes,” maliciously added by one of Bronsib’s discarded lovers, Bronsib becomes the target of a mob-style hit while fishing in Capri.

Taban, Alopex’s partner in crime, accidentally overhears the plot to kill Bronsib. Consequently, when the presumed dead, wounded and unconscious Bronsib falls overboard, Alopex’s is waiting beneath the surface with scuba gear to take him on board his luxury yacht, The Delphi. When Bronsib finally regains consciousness in Alopex’s private clinic in Switzerland, his real nightmare begins.

Alopex leads Inspector Greene and L.A.P.D. step by step to the denouement of his grizzly deed,  then just short of capture. After a spectacular, split-second getaway, Alopex and Taban’s small plane careens into the English Channel.

Inspector Greene, chagrinned Alopex has defied capture even in the end, has a gnawing feeling in the pit of his gut perhaps Alopex’s death was just a little too perfect?

Writing under the nom de plume, Nicole Du Bois, the author’s entire professional life has been devoted to cancer research. She now lives in California as a retired academic faculty member of a prestigious medical school where she became an internationally-known tissue culture expert doing pioneering work with stem cells. Co-author of over forty publications in such prestigious journals as The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, The New England Journal of Medicine and Nature, she is also an accomplished artist and loves to travel.

The nightmare began quite innocently on a  rainy night in England a little over a year ago. Outside the wind howled like a banshee, driving the rain against the windows unmercifully. Every few minutes lightning flashed, emblazoning the entire study with brilliant light, only to be followed by claps of thunder so loud the whole house shook and shuddered like a frightened crone.  Richard got up from his chair and crossed to the French doors, drawing the heavy, dark green velvet draperies closed like a cloak around the room’s shoulders in a futile attempt to shut out the violence of the storm.

After downing a delightful dinner of kidney pie he had adjourned to his study to enjoy some of his favorite brandy and a pipe only moments before the electricity went out. The flickering light from the fireplace cast eerie shadows around the room and now, as wisps of smoke gently drifted toward the ceiling, he reminisced about his active life as Chief Inspector at Scotland Yard. His life had been intensely colorful and absorbing. The walls of his study were lined with accolades, attesting to his outstanding accomplishments. He had been, and  still was, one of the most famous homicide detectives of modern times.

Retired now for almost two years he continued to stay active through consulting work on bizarre unsolved murders in Britain and other countries all over the world. Inspector Richard Greene completely retire? NEVER - not as long as his brain would work. Administrative   pressures thankfully now far  behind him, he was always eager to be on the "hunt."

It had been three months since his last case on the Continent and he had been spending most of his time relaxing and writing his memoirs. The criminal mind had always fascinated him, and while his interest in removing these villains from society had always been uppermost in his line of duty, it wasn't the only reason for his dedication to his work. Unraveling the homicidal mind with its twisted maze of labyrinthian contradictions, was like a  championship game of chess.  The relentless quest kept Richard’s juices flowing.