Ken McClure
Pocket Books, 1 July
2002, £6.99, 372 pages
ISBN:
0743415744
Rating:
****
In
July, the government of the United Kingdom announced the location of
around 30 farm sites that will host a new round of genetically modified
crop trials. There was widespread outrage among local residents. The
controversy surrounding GM crops has been simmering away for a while.
The government insists that such innovations provide the way forward
for the human race, while journalists and “rogue”
scientists continue to issue dire warnings about the potential effects,
not only to delicate ecosystems but also to our health, prompting
regular raids by protesters seeking to destroy the trial
sites.
Not surprisingly, the subject
has provided great fodder for thriller writers. Ken McClures new
novel Deception isnt the first to tackle the issue of GM
crops; this is a chilling tale about the world of agriculture, the
implications of which shouldnt be taken
lightly.
In a village outside
Edinburgh, a young boy is the victim of a savage attack while playing
by the canal. He is bitten repeatedly by a rat and later dies as a
consequence of his injuries. The village is already at the
centre of a bitter feud about a GM crop that has been planted
as part of a government trial, sparking angry protests from
residents.
Steven Dunbar, a former
army doctor, is sent in to investigate on behalf of Sci-Med, an
agency that investigates criminal activity in the fields of science and
medicine. He soon suspects that the increasing number of rat attacks is
a consequence of the GM crop. However, his attempts
to discover whether there is something in the plants that is altering
the rodents behaviour are thwarted at every step. Someone with
influence quite clearly wants to scare him away and will stop at
nothing to prevent him probing too deep—not even kidnapping his
four year old daughter. Despite this and the resistance he faces,
Steven persists and uncovers a far more sinister conspiracy with
greater implications for public health than he could ever have
anticipated.
Deception is the
second novel to feature Dunbar—a fairly stereotypical “good
guy,” unable to settle into normal life after leaving the special
forces. As well as seeing him pitting himself against some fairly tough
opposition, we see him coming to terms with the death of his wife a few
months ago, and embarking on a relationship with a woman he meets
during his investigation.
McClure
has inevitably been likened to the American big names such as Michael
Crichton and Robin Cook who dominate the genre, but in Deception
he has created a frighteningly plausible tale of conspiracy and
government cover ups, far more gripping than the world of
surgeon-psychopaths explored by Crichton, Cook, et al. As
McClure points out, the events of Deception are, as yet,
entirely fictional. I just hope they remain so.
