Smart, blonde, and self-destructive, Elizabeth Mann thinks that leaving New York for a London travel-writing job will solve all her problems. She couldn't be more wrong: In a museum of medical curiosities at the Royal College of Surgeons, her daydreams over the skeleton of Jonathan Wild - a notorious eighteenth-century bounty-hunter - are interrupted by an encounter with Gideon Streetcar, an attractive gynaecologist with asthma and a low sperm count. As Elizabeth fast assumes the humiliating, exhilarating role of Gideon's secret mistress, her obsession with Jonathan Wild grows. At an auction she happens upon the diary of Wild's own mistress, who was also named Elizabeth Mann. Further tantalized by this coincidence, Elizabeth decides that with Gideon's help, she will give birth to the bounty-hunter's clone. An impressive debut, Heredity is a virtuoso tale about the world of fertility and genetic cloning.