Infinity's Child

by Harry Stein

After over a year of trying, Sally Benedict is finally pregnant. Thrilled with the news, she plans to continue working as the editor of her small-town newspaper and quietly await the birth of her child with her husband, Mark. Suddenly, the hottest story ever to hit the sleepy New Hampshire town breaks wide open. Someone is robbing the churchyard’s oldest graves. The local police brush it off as teenage vandalism, but Sally believes it is something more. Especially when she stumbles upon a pattern linking the violated graves: they all belong to one family—her own. And as people around her fall prey to a series of suspicious accidents, Sally races to uncover the relationship between the bizarre crimes, herself, and her unborn baby. What she finds is more shocking than she could have ever imagined—a conspiracy that reaches back through generations and onto the cutting edge of high-tech medical research.

Only a few miles away, researchers at a small bio-tech lab are nearing a breakthrough that could make the age-old dream of eternal youth a reality. They have uncovered the key to longevity—in one family’s genetic makeup. But one crucial factor is missing: a living tissue sample from a newborn who possesses the coveted “infinity gene.” With time and money running out, the researchers are becoming desperate, and as they await the child’s birth, an isolated rural hospital provides the setting for a terrifying edge-of-the-seat climax. With her husband out of town, Sally Benedict goes into labor, knowing there is no one she can trust—not her family doctor, not her obstetrician, not anyone in the medical profession. And as the tension mounts, Sally proves just how far a mother will go to protect her child in this spellbinding novel that reveals the real price of medial miracles, as seductive and damned as the promise of eternal youth.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Conservative author Harry Stein is known for his light touch on hard topics: How I Accidentally Joined the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy (And Found Inner Peace): I Can't Believe I'm Sitting Next to a Republican; The Idiot Vote -- The Democrats' Core Constituency; etc. Now, with his comic novel Will Tripp, Pissed Off Attorney-at-Law , he does his bit to take back popular culture from the radical left.

Harry Stein is a veteran author and journalist who, in his earlier life as a liberal, regularly wrote for The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Playboy and Esquire, among other places he will never appear again. A contributing editor to City Journal, he written twelve books.

Reviews

[Felecia]

I really expected more of this book. I almost stopped reading it on a few occasions. I felt like it just dragged on. The main plot of them wanting her baby was very catchy, problem was it never really came to head till the very end. So many different sub-plots also became somewhat annoying but it wasn't to the point of hard to follow. I also had a problem with everyone randomly figuring out what was going on at the end with no other new information or incident. That was the worst part to me. I didn't like how the characters became completely different people in such a short time. I understand character growth and all, but their changes highly unrealistic. Everyone's sudden shift in character made no sense to me. It also irked me that some of the science/medical was wrong, for example, you don't "shock" a "flat line". I tried to remember that this was an older book and hoped that was why.
The good thing was it had short chapters which helped, me personally, to keep up with the sub-plots and kept me reading. Just when I felt like it was dragging the chapter would end. It is also well written in my opinion.
The second half of the book was good otherwise I would have given 2 stars.

[Randi Robinson]

This audiobook has been on my TBR list for quite a while. I should have left it there. The premise was a good one-isolate a protein on a gene that could lead to very long life and make a drug from it-but the execution was not great. The characters were not very well developed. I had trouble remembering who was good and who was evil. Maybe had I read it instead of listening to it that wouldn't have been a problem. The plot really dragged on until near the end when all the action took place. The conclusion was satisfying if somewhat rushed. The narrator did a good job on some of the main voices but there were a couple that sounded like they belonged in a comedy. All in all, a waste of time.

[Sarah]

Solid 3 stars, not terrible, not fantastic. Some tired tropes in here; reporters being so hungry for a story they will do anything/anyone to get it, husband doesn't believe wife about what's going on because "pregnancy hormones," etc.

I did like that all the shitty characters got what was coming to them in the end.

[Katharine]

Enjoyed the story line but felt the ending was too quickly resolved with many of the characters questionably gone.

[Kathy]

Fast read very very good!! Kept me on the edge of my seat. Quite the mystery!

[Judy]

Not enough definition of characters.

[nx74defiant]

Pretty standard thriller. Evil scientist looking for the key to immortality. Every one thinks Sally is getting obsessed with a wild conspiracy theory. She is right of course.

[Laurie]

This book started out slow but, all in all, I liked the book. My reading of it was very spordic because I was only able to read at lunchtime, and that constant disconnect from the story may have been part of the problem throughout the first half of the book, but there was an awful lot of background information and not knowing where the story was going throughout a large part of the this book. However, when it FINALLY started coming together, I was at the "I can't put it down" stage.

I liked the basic idea here regarding some genetic engineering, and that is what really kept me going. Harry Stein created well rounded believable characters. Without that, I would not have continued reading the book to the end. He is a master of description and development. Great story line! I just would have liked to have seen some hints (at least) of the end throughout the novel.

[Wil]

I have begun picking up books specifically to read at the gym- mostly with the excuse that I can read anything, since I'm being good! But mostly because it's one convenient way to place the large hardcover on the machine.

The premise of the book was interesting: the discovery of a gene whose protein could be used to help extend life into the hundreds. The story began with some interesting momentum, but eventually fell short to the very end.

['Nathan Burgoine]

A bargain-book I nabbed for its low price and an intriguing idea, this is the tale about a young woman who is pregnant, and whose baby may hold a very special gene - one that marks her for taking by some very unsavoury scientists.

I was expecting a basic thriller and didn't really have high expectations, but to be honest it was quite engaging and I remember reading it in one afternoon (on new year's day, I believe).

[Naee Lee]

It was wonderfully written. Maybe someone who doesnt do or get the Sciences (such as Biology for example) might get confused (Even I was confused at times!). Kinda twisted.. Very interesting. To me they got a bit lazy in the end but overall it was a great book.

[Diane Wachter]

Infinity's Child, Harry Stein, RDC-M V 4 1997, 10/20/12. A team of scientists think they've discovered eternal youth in the genes of an unborn child. All they need now are the infant's living cells...the mother stands in the way. Okay.

[Melissa]

It wasn't an amazing book but it also wasn't horrible. I figured it would be more exciting, it had the same pace all the way through except for true ending. I really did think Lee was one of the bad guys at the end, but I was wrong.

[THX]

Great concept- but not as thrilling or captivating as it could have been. This book could have been a 2-part episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker!?! (...maybe it was??)

[Toesnorth's mom]

medical "thriller", boring!

[Betty]

This was a book I picked up from the sale cart at Half Price Books several years ago for fifty cents. Just got around to reading it. Nothing great. Fairly predictable, but a good fluff book.

[Nancy]

Good book.