Chimeric Cadence

by Lara Casey

Dr. Aris Thorne is a pariah, a brilliant neuroscientist disgraced for a theory that was deemed scientific the idea that our identity—our very soul—is a biological story told by every cell in our body. Exiled to a makeshift lab, he is haunted by his research and the tragic loss that defined his past.

But when a terrifying new phenomenon emerges, dubbed "Sudden Apathy Syndrome," Aris watches in horror as the city he knows begins to quietly unravel. People aren't dying; they are being erased. A master violinist forgets how to play mid-performance. A loving mother watches her child wander away without a flicker of emotion. Their narratives are gone, replaced by a placid, unnerving emptiness.

Aris recognizes the chilling signature of his own life's work, twisted into a weapon of unimaginable scale. The architect of this silent apocalypse is his former mentor, the visionary Dr. Lena Petrova, who believes she is not destroying humanity, but perfecting it. She calls her creation the Chimeric Cadence—a signal that edits out the messy, painful chaos of human emotion, leaving a world of serene, harmonious control in its wake.

Now, Thorne is the only one who understands the language of this new plague. Hunted by Petrova’s agents and racing against a global broadcast that will make the change permanent, he must find a flaw in her perfect, sterile harmony. To save humanity, he can't just create a cure; he must compose a counter-melody from the one thing Petrova’s system cannot the beautiful, terrible noise of a truly human soul.

A gripping blend of high-concept science fiction and high-stakes suspense, Chimeric Cadence is a relentless technothriller that explores the very nature of consciousness, memory, and the price of a perfect world. If you love the mind-bending concepts of Blake Crouch and the dystopian landscapes of Philip K. Dick, you won’t be able to put down this battle for the soul of humanity.

239 pages, Hardcover

Published November 20, 2025

About the author

Hi! I’m Lara. A mom to three–one through the gift of adoption—a grateful wife, and a believer in the impossible! She is the Founder and CEO of Cultivate What Matters and created the PowerSheets® Goal Planner–an intentional goal-setting planner to help women break down their goals into manageable action steps and start living on purpose. She founded Southern Weddings magazine a decade ago and is the CEO of Cultivate What Matters. Lara is also the founder of the Making Things Happen movement, a nationally-acclaimed workshop that has been sold out for the last eight years and has toured over 40 cities. Lara frequently speaks on goal-setting, faith, mission-centered business. Lara authored three books through Thomas Nelson Publishers: Make it Happen: Surrender Your Fear, Take the Leap, Live on Purpose, Cultivate: A Grace-Filled Guide to Growing an Intentional Life, and her most recent children's book Gracie's Garden available now! Lara lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with her husband, Ari, and their children, Grace, Joshua, and Sarah, and spends her free time in the garden...