The Biotech Murders

Sergeant Maggie Thompson of the Massachusetts State Police is assigned to investigate a dead body, wrapped in blue lab-grade plastic, that is found in a state park near Boston. Soon Maggie discovers that the victim worked at a nearby biotechnology company, which just happens to be where Maggie's estranged half-brother Benny works. Before long Maggie is undercover as Benny's assistant. As they investigate the murder together, Benny and Maggie also slowly rediscover each other and their family's own fifty- year-old mystery surrounding their father's time in Vietnam during the war and a sister they had never heard of. Another killing and then another drive the fast-paced action in the present as they also grapple with secrets from their shared past.

Biotech has changed all our lives. Starting with now seemingly primitive tools of molecular biology in the 1970's, through the Human Genome Project in the 1990's, and to gene editing in living people today, this industry has invented cures for diseases that were previously death sentences. If you know anyone with cancer, arthritis, psoriasis, obesity, or colitis, they're probably being treated with a biotech drug, and are better off for it.

But like any human endeavor, biotech has good guys and bad ones. There is greed, jealousy, pettiness, and hatred, alongside brilliance and creativity. This story is fictional, but the people and events in it are based on my experience during almost a quarter century in biotech. That was plenty of time to meet people one would like to knock off, but so far, no one has gotten away with murder. At least, as far as we know!