Lethal Genes

Catherine Saylor Mystery #5

by Linda Grant

At U.C. Berkeley's plant genetics lab, precious specimens are being trashed and genetic material is disappearing. Student pranks? With a major grant coming up for renewal, it's not likely.

Then everybody's favorite staff member dies suddenly, and the lab's brainy researchers start squabbling like children. Shrewd private investigator Catherine Sayler wonders if the race for lucrative biotech breakthroughs caused this ugly rift. But the big question Are some of these budding genetic geniuses also experimenting with murder?

Genres: Mystery

260 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 2, 1996

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads' database with this name. See this thread for more information.

A pseudonym of Linda V(erLee) Williams

Linda Verlee Williams has taught school at every level from preschool to college. She has trained teachers at the University of California at Berkeley, for the Ministry of Education in Ethiopia, and in many school districts. She is an instructor at University Extension, the University of California and is an associate of The Learning Circle in Berkeley.

List of short stories:
* Lady Luck (ss) Sisters in Crime 3, ed. Marilyn Wallace, Berkley 1990
* Last Rites (nv) Sisters in Crime 4, ed. Marilyn Wallace, Berkley 1991
* No Better Than Her Father (nv) The Mysterious West, ed. Tony Hillerman, HarperCollins 1994
* Ashes to Ashes (nv) Malice Domestic 4, Carolyn G. Hart, Pocket 1995
* Hamlet’s Dilemma (ss) Women on the Case, ed. Sara Paretsky, Delacorte 1996
* The Mother of Our Country (nv) The First Lady Murders, ed. Nancy Pickard, Pocket 1999
* The Second-Oldest Profession (ss) Mom, Apple Pie, and Murder, ed. Nancy Pickard, Berkley 1999
* Never Too Old (ss) Sisters on the Case: Celebrating Twenty Years of Sisters in Crime, ed. Sara Paretsky, Signet 2007

Series:
* Catherine Saylor Mystery

Reviews

[Alonzo Church · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s sabotage, theft and mayhem going on at the genetic research lab at Berkeley and our protagonist detective is on the case. It doesn’t matter that one of the prime suspects looks like James Dean, and, with her live in on an extended business trip to Guatemala, her hormones are on overdrive. With the bodies piling up, she’s going to get to the bottom of all this, as well as whatever is causing her teenage niece’s grades to sink.

OK 90s female PI book that has an interesting setting for murder, but does not otherwise engage. When the murderer was Identified, I had to look back a few pages to remember who she was. This is an author and series I will give another chance, but this episode was just kind of meh.

[LJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

LETHAL GENES - Ok
Grant, Linda - 5th in Catherine Sayler series

Kendra Crawford, head of the maize lab specializing in plant genetics at the University of California at Berkeley, and her handsome top assistant, Paul Raskin, call on private investigator Catherine Sayler to probe a case of continuing vandalism at their biotech lab. Crawford and Raskin don't want to involve the university or police authorities any more than necessary for fear of losing precious funding should any scandal emerge. But when two researchers die in mysterious circumstances, Catherine knows there's far more at stake than sabotaged research. As she delves deeper into the case, she uncovers a startling secret that takes her beyond the maize research team's small sphere of greenhouses and labs into the high-stakes world of biotech . . . and she moves one step closer to a deadly confrontation with a killer.

The subject of genetics is interesting, but not my thing, and it tended to be quite technical. I think I'll get her future books in paperback.

[Irene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh my...I think I would have been more forgiving in my opinion of this book if no one had told me the premise or made fun of it. I'm too easily influenced! Anyway, writing and character development sucked, but at the same time, a must read if you are in a maize genetics lab (plus, knowing Koshland Hall, Pat Brown's, and other Berkeley/San Francisco sites in addition to some lab experience helps you picture the novel even more). Apparently, the author's husband did a post-doc at Mike Freeling's lab, and the characters are based on people who have long been gone...

[Chris Leuchtenburg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of (largely undeveloped) characters and a complex far fetched plot made this one slow going. Even the ending didn't really pick up the pace.