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Shep Harrington Smalltown Mystery #2
Chain Thinking: A Shep Harrington Smalltown Mystery
Syndey Vail, once a beautiful soap opera star, now has a passion for championing the rights of animals—but she keeps the controversial methods of her cause as shrouded as she keeps her partially disfigured face. Sydney enters lawyer-cum-detective Shep Harrington’s life in a cloud of dust and vanishes just as quickly, leaving behind two very different but strangely connected things: a chimpanzee and a murder.
The chimpanzee is the young Kikora, whom Sydney liberated from her confining cage in a testing lab at DMI—a mega-medical conglomerate led by the hard-driving Howard Doring, who “apparently believes that the human animal has every right to exploit all living things.” At DMI, she and other chimps were used to test a new anti-obesity pill. The murdered victim, killed by a blow to the head, is Dr. Celia Stone, the DMI researcher in charge of Kikora.
Soon Shep realizes that Kikora, left in his initially unwilling care, is not only stolen property, but the longer he keeps her, the more threatened his own freedom becomes—and the more often tough questions race through his head. What makes an animal property? What is the source of “human” rights? What about an animal whose only difference from humans is 1.6% of DNA, that can empathize and suffer like humans? The questions confuse Shep, who’s never had to think hard about them before.
And the only answers he seems to find lie in the big brown eyes of a chimp called Kikora.
Chain Thinking is a whodunit with a heart and a mystery with a message. Once the mystery is solved, there’s a whole lot more left to think about. Shep finds his answers. Will you find yours?
The chimpanzee is the young Kikora, whom Sydney liberated from her confining cage in a testing lab at DMI—a mega-medical conglomerate led by the hard-driving Howard Doring, who “apparently believes that the human animal has every right to exploit all living things.” At DMI, she and other chimps were used to test a new anti-obesity pill. The murdered victim, killed by a blow to the head, is Dr. Celia Stone, the DMI researcher in charge of Kikora.
Soon Shep realizes that Kikora, left in his initially unwilling care, is not only stolen property, but the longer he keeps her, the more threatened his own freedom becomes—and the more often tough questions race through his head. What makes an animal property? What is the source of “human” rights? What about an animal whose only difference from humans is 1.6% of DNA, that can empathize and suffer like humans? The questions confuse Shep, who’s never had to think hard about them before.
And the only answers he seems to find lie in the big brown eyes of a chimp called Kikora.
Chain Thinking is a whodunit with a heart and a mystery with a message. Once the mystery is solved, there’s a whole lot more left to think about. Shep finds his answers. Will you find yours?
274 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2003
1 person is currently reading
313 people want to read
About the author
Elliott Light
6 books17 followersLight grew up outside Washington, D.C. in McLean, Virginia before the beltway encircled the capital city, before farms were turned into housing developments, and before open fields became mega-malls.
Light attended the University of Virginia, receiving degrees in Electrical Engineering and Law. He has several patents to his name.
After stints as an environmental lawyer and a high tech in-house counsel, he practiced patent law in a private law firm.
Now retired, he resides in Naples, FL with his wife, Sonya. Throwaways is his fourth published novel.
Light attended the University of Virginia, receiving degrees in Electrical Engineering and Law. He has several patents to his name.
After stints as an environmental lawyer and a high tech in-house counsel, he practiced patent law in a private law firm.
Now retired, he resides in Naples, FL with his wife, Sonya. Throwaways is his fourth published novel.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 22, 2021
Shep Harrington knows what it is like to be deprived of control over his life, hope and liberty. He served three years before he was exonerated for a crime for a crime he should never have been accused of.
After 'Kikora', a young female chimpanzee taken from a medical testing lab, is left in Shep's care by the alleged murderer of scientist Celia Stone, he develops a bond with the chimp and manages a little communication through sign language. The author, Elliott Light, does not try to humanise Kikora but rather points to both the similarities and differences between humans and animals.
When Kikora is returned by court order to the testing facility Shep manages to get a two-week prohibition of medical testing - the clock is ticking!
"Chain Thinking" is, in part, a polemic concerning the way we treat those we consider inferior, in this case chimpanzees. It prompted me to explore where Ireland stands because I thought, mistakenly as it turned out, that we had banned animal medical testing. The Health Products Regulatory Agency noted that in 2019 136,164 animals were used in Ireland for scientific research, including 6 Hamsters and 16 sub-Saharan frogs - no 'non-human primates' were used. "Non-human primates" is a strange way of describing them, there's an acceptance of the relationship between humans and other primates, but it would seem an there's no reason that they can't be used for medical testing.
The second strand of the plot concerns solving the killing of Celia Stone - the investigation is reasoned, thorough and more or less pointless until a couple of events combine to solve it almost by chance.
It's a book which made me think about things I normally wouldn't choose to but that also somewhat dilute the plotting in terms of the murder.
After 'Kikora', a young female chimpanzee taken from a medical testing lab, is left in Shep's care by the alleged murderer of scientist Celia Stone, he develops a bond with the chimp and manages a little communication through sign language. The author, Elliott Light, does not try to humanise Kikora but rather points to both the similarities and differences between humans and animals.
When Kikora is returned by court order to the testing facility Shep manages to get a two-week prohibition of medical testing - the clock is ticking!
"Chain Thinking" is, in part, a polemic concerning the way we treat those we consider inferior, in this case chimpanzees. It prompted me to explore where Ireland stands because I thought, mistakenly as it turned out, that we had banned animal medical testing. The Health Products Regulatory Agency noted that in 2019 136,164 animals were used in Ireland for scientific research, including 6 Hamsters and 16 sub-Saharan frogs - no 'non-human primates' were used. "Non-human primates" is a strange way of describing them, there's an acceptance of the relationship between humans and other primates, but it would seem an there's no reason that they can't be used for medical testing.
The second strand of the plot concerns solving the killing of Celia Stone - the investigation is reasoned, thorough and more or less pointless until a couple of events combine to solve it almost by chance.
It's a book which made me think about things I normally wouldn't choose to but that also somewhat dilute the plotting in terms of the murder.
June 9, 2014
A very captivating mystery. We have a murder. A stollen chimpanse and a lawyer who has been in trouble with the law.
April 19, 2017
A well plotted mystery woven into a compelling moral issue. Quite well done!! (And I loved all the cats)
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews