Beth Martin

This book is set in the near future (2059). There are lots of technological advances but there is a downside. Due to global warming, the country is severely overpopulated so reproduction is strictly limited to one child. After a man fathers one child or a woman births one child they must be sterilized and it cannot be reversed even if the child dies or they remarry. Unmarried women have an implant to prevent pregnancy until they are married. Irene works in the Social Department where every person's DNA is recorded in the Genome Database and she investigates reports of multiple children with the same DNA. She is shocked when her best friend Annette's new baby shows up in her caseload. During her investigation and in her quest to find a sperm donor for her wife, Irene is drawn into an off-the-grid organization called the Alliance for Quality DNA (AQD). This book is well written and fast paced. It presents a rather grim view of our future and the dastardly things that can happen. I love books about medical experimentation and I loved this one! Thanks to BookSirens and the author for allowing me to read and review it.… (plus d'informations)

Set in the near future, America's answer to climate change is to impose a strict one-child policy. Sterilization is mandatory, for men and women, after the birth of their first child.

Annette becomes pregnant after a one-night stand with a sexy stranger. Everyone's DNA is listed in the Genome Database. It gives Annette the name of a man who she never met, who died several years previously (frozen sperm does not last for several years). Irene is an investigator with the Seattle Social Department. More such anomalies cross her desk. This is not just a "glitch" in the system; something is very wrong. Just to make things more complicated, Jamie, Irene's wife, really wants to have a child (much more than does Irene). Finding a suitable sperm donor is easier said than done.

Focus shifts to a very off-the-grid group called the Alliance for Quality DNA, or AQD. It is almost a cult, and is run by Aidan, who is charismatic, but nuts. Irene goes undercover, with help from the FBI. They are concerned about terrorism, but Irene is on to the reason for the birth anomalies. Does she become an unintended guinea pig for whatever the AQD has planned?

Here is a really good piece of writing. It's gripping, it's plausible and it will certainly keep the reader's attention. This is very much worth checking out.… (plus d'informations)