The Methuselah Solution

by William O. Harris III, Robert A. Nash (Foreword)

As prison problems grow exponentially in the United States this story captures the politics of the prison system and finds a revolutionary answer in this futuristic thriller. Dr. Cynthia Turner is a rising star at the Texas Institute where she supervises the administration of a new form of alternative sentencing. The answer is a newly developed serum injected in the criminal to replace multiple years of costly confinement with the rapid aging of the convicted felon for the exact number of years sentenced by the court. In the year 2007 the serum is in its sixth year of use, but it is showing the signs of a flawed testing program. As the serum exhibits signs of failure, Dr. Turner attempts to protect the Institute where released felons readjust to new lives with weaker bones, slower pulses and mottled minds. Problems that occur in this underground Institute, throughout the book, would remain as silent and deadly as the Ebola virus of Reston, Virginia, except for the disorganized efforts of Dallas' reporter Alexis Troutman. The apocalyptic conclusion explodes when Alex enters the Institute as an over aged prisoner and his maniacal partner embarks on a reign of terror and vengeance after securing the Institute's newly developed antidote to the aging serum. In my story, a rush to solve the criminal problem in the United States spawns a quick, but faulty, solution destined to make victims of us all. As an Air force fighter pilot with over 700 combat missions in South East Asia, I reacted with a quick, temporary solution that allows us to fight again another day. But, similar to the US policy of waiting until heroic measures were required in South East Asia before reacting, TheMethuselah Solution' is the over-kill answer to a problem that has grown and compounded over decades. A problem that is now so pervasive in our culture that it requires not just removal of the cancer, but a full program of well-being for our society.

Author Biography: Bill was born in Huntsville, Alabama in 1936, attended high school in Wichita Kansas and graduated with a BS in Engineering from the United States Naval Academy in 1959. Commissioned in the USAF upon graduation, served twenty six years as a pilot in the Air Force, including two combat tours in South East Asia. He retired in 1986 in Norfolk, Virginia, managed a Tennis Club for two yearsd served as an Assistant Athletic Director at Old Dominion University until 1995 when he and his wife, Amy, moved to South Boston, Virginia. Employed by Cardinal Homes Inc. for two years he now serves as the Executive Director of the YMCA.

424 pages, Hardcover

First published November 6, 2000

Reviews

[Tara Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was intrigued by this book's premise, as it was one I'd not heard before. I liked the beginning of the book, though there was too much backstory about the main protagonist, the scientist Cindy, and how her father had molested her for pages on end. I understand it traumatized her and also molded her adult personality, but those sections could have been condensed into one or two pages. The repeated flashbacks into what had happened in detail took away from the plot and action.

The middle of the book was awesome, particularly the insight into the background of the thief Joshua who is being punished with this aging sentence, and also backstory of a battered wife who kills her husband. I racecd right thought this part turning pages as fast as possible, as I was dying to see what happened. But the ending was thoroughly unsatisfying. At that point I was rooting for Joshua, not Cindy. This book was also rife with typos and formatting errors after the first two chapters.