Coincidentally, Dr. Ken MacStirling's newly developed hantavirus vaccine is only waiting on a clinical trial. Fortunate, yes? Not according to activist tribal lawyer, Monty Four Bear, who states that better circumstances would prevail if a population other than his own were used as guinea pigs.
"I had some of the same thoughts." Before Monty even had time to respond, Isabel McLain continued. "Why not wait, until the vaccine has been tested? But Dr. MacStirling pointed something out to me. We're talking years, years, before this product is on the market. In the meantime, how many more lives will this despicable disease claim? Even if the answer is only one, that's one too many. I will do everything in my power," her voice weakened momentarily, "... everything, to make sure that what happened to Joe and Will and Dolores doesn't happen again. Not here. Not on this reservation."Isabel is fiery, committed, and gorgeous; ditto Monty; something goes seriously (and intentionally) awry with the vaccine; the two diametrically opposed firebrands join forces; canoodling ensues. Anyone surprised yet? Probably not, but in Clinical Trial, April Christofferson's second medical thriller (see 1999's The Protocol) the author wisely dishes up enough sympathetic good guys and ancillary bad guys--Isabel's crooked and licentious husband, Alistair; nasty players from an even nastier Canadian mining outfit; a furious Soviet scientist working for MacStirling's biotech firm, et al.--to crowd out the lack of depth and to keep us happily wondering for long enough which Reds are herrings and which are not. --Michael Hudson