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Cease to Exist
A U.S. Congressman, Instagram influencer, and university professor all go missing. What do these seemingly random disappearances have in common? Richard O’Brien, a newly minted FBI agent, is assigned to find out. Meanwhile a group of scientists and nation states are engaged in a high-stakes race to exploit new discoveries in genetic engineering, where the winner will have the ability to literally control the destiny of the human race. Follow Richard O’Brien as he travels to Cambodia, Thailand, and Hong Kong, diving head first into the effort to prevent science from replacing evolution and life’s natural order.
If you are naturally curious, if you love science and suspense, and if you want to see where the field of genomics is heading, you will love Cease to Exist.
Cease to Exist follows Richard O’Brien’s debut in Con & Consequence , also by Ian Rodney Lazarus and available at most online book retailers.
If you are naturally curious, if you love science and suspense, and if you want to see where the field of genomics is heading, you will love Cease to Exist.
Cease to Exist follows Richard O’Brien’s debut in Con & Consequence , also by Ian Rodney Lazarus and available at most online book retailers.
227 pages, Hardcover
Published August 31, 2023
811 people want to read
About the author
Ian Rodney Lazarus
3 books11 followersIan Rodney Lazarus was born into a dysfunctional family in Detroit, Michigan, and carried these scars with him throughout his life. He grew up restless, eccentric, and intensely curious. This led him to a career of endless solo business travel, across five continents, and inevitably to many situations that became recreated in his novels. In addition to three books, Lazarus has published over 50 articles in print magazines, and managed a column for a national quality journal where he critiqued everything from the process of renting a car to pouring an environmentally-friendly cup of coffee.
A father of three who barely survived his university years, Lazarus nonetheless achieved his long-held dream of living on the West Coast by the time he was 45.
He continued to take his reckless lifestyle with him when he arrived in San Diego, engaging in sailing, spearfishing, scuba diving and other pursuits where he tested the limits of common sense. Lazarus earned a “Six Sigma Blackbelt” during a brief moment of intellectual curiosity, replaced later by more questionable decisions.
After sufficient injuries to his body and pride, he now spends his time writing from the safety of his massage chair on behalf of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, where he serves as Staff Officer for Publications.
A father of three who barely survived his university years, Lazarus nonetheless achieved his long-held dream of living on the West Coast by the time he was 45.
He continued to take his reckless lifestyle with him when he arrived in San Diego, engaging in sailing, spearfishing, scuba diving and other pursuits where he tested the limits of common sense. Lazarus earned a “Six Sigma Blackbelt” during a brief moment of intellectual curiosity, replaced later by more questionable decisions.
After sufficient injuries to his body and pride, he now spends his time writing from the safety of his massage chair on behalf of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, where he serves as Staff Officer for Publications.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 31, 2025
As with Ian's first book, "Con and Consequence", I found it hard to put down. I finished the book in less than two days as I couldn't wait to turn the page to read what happens next. I really like the story, and I really like the way that Ian writes. He writes things into the story that make the story believable like the use of CRISPR, RNA, FOXL2, all being real things that just enhances the story. The locations in the story are real which adds to the believability. Nicely done Ian, can't wait for your next book. You're quite a talented writer and I enjoy your works. I highly recommend this book.
April 28, 2025
I thought my breath was taken away with the first 📕! I was wrong, I had plenty of breath left, and yes it was dragged out of me with book number 2 “Cease to Exist “. This book read like a rather large hurricane and covered scary stuff as well as painting a different kind of future than what we all believe in.
The plot is thicker than Grandma’s winter oatmeal. The characters are as complex and determined as any I have seen before.
Was this a good book? No, it was a great book, a perfect read. You do need to get your hands on it and read now! You will really appreciate this one!
Michael
The plot is thicker than Grandma’s winter oatmeal. The characters are as complex and determined as any I have seen before.
Was this a good book? No, it was a great book, a perfect read. You do need to get your hands on it and read now! You will really appreciate this one!
Michael
March 27, 2025
I found the story started a bit slow, as needed I suppose to introduce all the characters. However, I am glad I kept reading. It was very interesting with twists to keep it interesting. It is scary what science can do in the wrong hands. I recommend it.
This book was received from the author through Voracious Readers Only, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
This book was received from the author through Voracious Readers Only, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
April 1, 2025
A great suspense story featuring FBI agent Richard O'Brien, who we met in the prequel to this story. This book is great as a stand alone and as a sequel to Con &Consequence. Loved the storyline and had me turning the pages! Cannot wait for the next one from Author Ian Rodney Lazarus.
I was given a complimentary copy of the book from the author via voracious readers only.
I was given a complimentary copy of the book from the author via voracious readers only.
May 30, 2025
Spoilers: I'm beginning to sense a pattern in the Richard O'Brien books so far. While O’Brien is himself a compelling protagonist with his shaky love life, his brilliance combined with physical toughness, and his morally gray philosophical look at life, it's the antagonists who are some of the more captivating and stimulating parts of the books.
In the previous book, Con and Consequence, the genius con artist turned terrorist, Jelani captured Reader's interests with Jelani's arrogance at pulling a con job with many victims and his panic when he learned about his new organization's true goals and motives. His inscrutable handler, The Professor, also fascinated with their deceptive plays on all sides and the mystery of their real identity and loyalties.
The next book in Ian Rodney Lazarus’s stirring Political Thriller series, Cease to Exist gives us another pair of intriguing antagonists. The first is Emma Lee, a Chinese emigre who steals CRISPR samples from her work lab and also spies for various governments particularly China, North Korea, and the United States.
The other is Dennis Spence, secretive founder of the nonprofit Center for New Beginnings, a rehab center/mental hospital with a dubious reputation. He is also a trans male and recipient of the CRISPR samples that his partner, Emma stole.
Meanwhile, Richard O'Brien became an FBI special agent after he was removed from his former position as a linguist and translator. Reports of missing people with connections to The Center of New Beginnings puts Richard on the case and right in Emma and Dennis's path. The stolen CRISPR samples, missing people, and Emma, Dennis, and Richard’s exploits are revealed to be parts of larger stakes from bigger governments who have wider motives and uses for genetic engineering technology.
Similar to Con and Consequence, Cease to Exist shows the threads beginning with the sample theft and the missing persons cases. Then these threads grow larger and become more tangled with international plots in which the wealthy and powerful world leaders cause long term complications for their own personal gain.
The strongest theme in this volume is transition. Everyone is transitioning from one life to another. Their lives, jobs, roles, personalities, ideologies, and gender identities are in flux and require great thought, skill, patience, persistence, and acceptance. Once the book ends, it becomes clear that nobody is the same person that they were in the early chapters or the previous volume.
Richard goes from being a bright academic and translator to an active field agent. His first few chapters focus on his training and the lessons, such as memorizing code words while in captivity, become useful during his assignment. He becomes less cerebral and an outsider and more active and aggressive while on the inside.
His love life also goes through a change. In the previous volume, he was written as a callous womanizer with a long term girlfriend who took her own life. He ended the last book in a relationship with Special Agent Sarah Goodman. In this volume, he is involved with Sarah and while he strays or thinks of other women, he feels guilt for it and does everything that he can to patch things up with Sarah. While there are still problems in his personal life, Richard is veering towards taking things to another level and maturing.
He also has to play many parts while undercover. Once he impersonates a kidnap victim during an international prison exchange. One of the darkest creepiest sections occurs when he is institutionalized for a time after investigating a lead at The Center for New Beginnings. The gaslighting from Dennis and his staff is so effective that Richard doubts whether he really is an FBI agent or it was just a delusion.
Emma is another character who goes through many changes. One of the most interesting aspects to her character is her chameleon like way of adapting and changing herself to fit how others see her. While working in the genetic engineering, she takes on the role of an amusing geeky girl who watches Science Fiction films like Jurassic Park with her colleagues. She becomes a loyal and devoted friend and lover to Dennis even willing to break the law for him. In front of her handlers, she is cold blooded and methodical.
One of her most intriguing changes occurs later in the book when she acts as a honey trap in a game of seduction. She is dressed in a sexy gown, speaks in double entendre, and draws her target in with her allure and charisma. It's hard to believe that she is the same nerd applauding Jeff Goldblum’s speeches in Jurassic Park before stealing CRISPR samples but it shows her versatility and transformation in becoming the person others want to see in her.
Emma has a lot of layers that Lazarus expertly writes so it's hard to tell who the real Emma Lee is. After all, if she plays so many roles, how do we know where the real Emma begins and ends or if a real Emma exists at all.
Naturally, the biggest change occurs within Dennis Spence. Lazarus goes to great lengths to show us Dennis's background of abuse that he endured during his early years of his assigned female gender at birth when he lived under the name of Denise. It was a violent abusive past that Dennis had to run from. Despite being an antagonist, Lazarus writes Dennis with a lot of care so we can see a multifaceted person with a backstory that created the person that he became.
It's clear that Dennis has been hurt and chose to return that hurt to others. He sees the world as shallow and empty and people as mere playthings that can do whatever he wants. Similar to The Professor, he hides his true intentions and alliances. But unlike his predecessor who has the luxury of anonymity, Dennis hides his real nature and past behind a public philanthropic famous persona. He keeps up appearances while hiding a knife that will stab anyone who interferes.
There are other transformations which play into the plot and these changes affect the wider goals of government officials who want to perform their own transitions. They want to change the world around them so only they can benefit and others are destroyed. That's a transition which benefits no one. There are no winners, only dictators and those that they crush until they themselves are crushed by those who have had enough.
In the previous book, Con and Consequence, the genius con artist turned terrorist, Jelani captured Reader's interests with Jelani's arrogance at pulling a con job with many victims and his panic when he learned about his new organization's true goals and motives. His inscrutable handler, The Professor, also fascinated with their deceptive plays on all sides and the mystery of their real identity and loyalties.
The next book in Ian Rodney Lazarus’s stirring Political Thriller series, Cease to Exist gives us another pair of intriguing antagonists. The first is Emma Lee, a Chinese emigre who steals CRISPR samples from her work lab and also spies for various governments particularly China, North Korea, and the United States.
The other is Dennis Spence, secretive founder of the nonprofit Center for New Beginnings, a rehab center/mental hospital with a dubious reputation. He is also a trans male and recipient of the CRISPR samples that his partner, Emma stole.
Meanwhile, Richard O'Brien became an FBI special agent after he was removed from his former position as a linguist and translator. Reports of missing people with connections to The Center of New Beginnings puts Richard on the case and right in Emma and Dennis's path. The stolen CRISPR samples, missing people, and Emma, Dennis, and Richard’s exploits are revealed to be parts of larger stakes from bigger governments who have wider motives and uses for genetic engineering technology.
Similar to Con and Consequence, Cease to Exist shows the threads beginning with the sample theft and the missing persons cases. Then these threads grow larger and become more tangled with international plots in which the wealthy and powerful world leaders cause long term complications for their own personal gain.
The strongest theme in this volume is transition. Everyone is transitioning from one life to another. Their lives, jobs, roles, personalities, ideologies, and gender identities are in flux and require great thought, skill, patience, persistence, and acceptance. Once the book ends, it becomes clear that nobody is the same person that they were in the early chapters or the previous volume.
Richard goes from being a bright academic and translator to an active field agent. His first few chapters focus on his training and the lessons, such as memorizing code words while in captivity, become useful during his assignment. He becomes less cerebral and an outsider and more active and aggressive while on the inside.
His love life also goes through a change. In the previous volume, he was written as a callous womanizer with a long term girlfriend who took her own life. He ended the last book in a relationship with Special Agent Sarah Goodman. In this volume, he is involved with Sarah and while he strays or thinks of other women, he feels guilt for it and does everything that he can to patch things up with Sarah. While there are still problems in his personal life, Richard is veering towards taking things to another level and maturing.
He also has to play many parts while undercover. Once he impersonates a kidnap victim during an international prison exchange. One of the darkest creepiest sections occurs when he is institutionalized for a time after investigating a lead at The Center for New Beginnings. The gaslighting from Dennis and his staff is so effective that Richard doubts whether he really is an FBI agent or it was just a delusion.
Emma is another character who goes through many changes. One of the most interesting aspects to her character is her chameleon like way of adapting and changing herself to fit how others see her. While working in the genetic engineering, she takes on the role of an amusing geeky girl who watches Science Fiction films like Jurassic Park with her colleagues. She becomes a loyal and devoted friend and lover to Dennis even willing to break the law for him. In front of her handlers, she is cold blooded and methodical.
One of her most intriguing changes occurs later in the book when she acts as a honey trap in a game of seduction. She is dressed in a sexy gown, speaks in double entendre, and draws her target in with her allure and charisma. It's hard to believe that she is the same nerd applauding Jeff Goldblum’s speeches in Jurassic Park before stealing CRISPR samples but it shows her versatility and transformation in becoming the person others want to see in her.
Emma has a lot of layers that Lazarus expertly writes so it's hard to tell who the real Emma Lee is. After all, if she plays so many roles, how do we know where the real Emma begins and ends or if a real Emma exists at all.
Naturally, the biggest change occurs within Dennis Spence. Lazarus goes to great lengths to show us Dennis's background of abuse that he endured during his early years of his assigned female gender at birth when he lived under the name of Denise. It was a violent abusive past that Dennis had to run from. Despite being an antagonist, Lazarus writes Dennis with a lot of care so we can see a multifaceted person with a backstory that created the person that he became.
It's clear that Dennis has been hurt and chose to return that hurt to others. He sees the world as shallow and empty and people as mere playthings that can do whatever he wants. Similar to The Professor, he hides his true intentions and alliances. But unlike his predecessor who has the luxury of anonymity, Dennis hides his real nature and past behind a public philanthropic famous persona. He keeps up appearances while hiding a knife that will stab anyone who interferes.
There are other transformations which play into the plot and these changes affect the wider goals of government officials who want to perform their own transitions. They want to change the world around them so only they can benefit and others are destroyed. That's a transition which benefits no one. There are no winners, only dictators and those that they crush until they themselves are crushed by those who have had enough.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 24, 2023
Cease to Exist, the second book in the emerging Richard O’Brien spy series by author Ian Lazarus, doesn’t cease to enthrall readers, pulling them into a fast-paced scientific thriller that criss-crosses the globe. Relying on the latest advances in medicine and genomics, strategic and tactical weaponry, and political tensions and intrigue, the book has a “ripped from modern headlines” feel to it, thread together with a unique cast of complex and real-life characters battling global threats as well as their own frailties and internal demons. A must read for anyone who enjoys action dramas and spy novels.
February 12, 2025
In this highly anticipated sequel, newly trained FPI agent Richard O'Brien steps into hero mode when he helps untangle a conspiracy among Asian rogue nations and visionary scientists to weaponize cutting-edge technology for the purpose of achieving global domination.
The narrative spotlights advances in genomics, germline editing and cryogenics which has the possibility of endowing humans with self-healing properties and extending their life span. The story combines science fiction and FBI/CIA covert operations in equal measure to create a masterful blend of a fascinating and suspenseful espionage account. The author has once again done his due diligence in research as he incorporates futuristic developments with current events, specifically tensions between China and Taiwan and disputes in the South China Sea.
This is a recommended read for escapism aficionados who are attuned to imaginative takes on futurism and alternative facts.
The narrative spotlights advances in genomics, germline editing and cryogenics which has the possibility of endowing humans with self-healing properties and extending their life span. The story combines science fiction and FBI/CIA covert operations in equal measure to create a masterful blend of a fascinating and suspenseful espionage account. The author has once again done his due diligence in research as he incorporates futuristic developments with current events, specifically tensions between China and Taiwan and disputes in the South China Sea.
This is a recommended read for escapism aficionados who are attuned to imaginative takes on futurism and alternative facts.
June 25, 2025
A great story. If you enjoy espionage, this is the book for you. It could easily be the script for a movie. Equally it could easily be non fiction. With the way the world is currently, this scenario would not be out of place. This may be a sequel, but it definitely stands on it's own merits with everything nicely tied up at the end; well almost... Starting with a simple FBI investigation that takes on a twist with international ramifications in several countries. There are missing people, secret experiment results to be kept protected from theft by foreign agents, lies, deceit, misinformation, subversion & more.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author via Voracious Readers Only
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author via Voracious Readers Only
June 10, 2025
This is the author’s second book starring FBI agent Richard O’Brien. He is fearless and quite adept in the spy game. We learn (and should already realize) that citizens of other countries are imbedded in important, scientific positions. What’s scary in this book (and likely in reality) is how genetic modification is being used in countries that don’t regulate the industry properly. Richard dives right into the muddy waters, to discover who is perverting the use of genetics. I hope the author will continue to write about Richard’s exploits.
I received an ARC and this is my personal opinion.
I received an ARC and this is my personal opinion.
November 16, 2025
Round 2 of Richard O'Brien... or should I say Special Agent O'Brien. As with Con And Consequence, I was very impressed with the research and attention to detail that went into this book. When you are investigating a case that involves labs and genetics, there was bound to be some technical terminology needed and Ian did a great job covering those topics... and in a way that you don't need a background in those fields to understand. Definitely recommend. Loved the characters and the twists and turns... especially that ending 😉. On to the next one.
July 7, 2025
Really enjoyed this book. An original storyline, believable characters, fast paced and really holds your interest. Would definitely recommend
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews