Blue Genes
HarperCollins 1996
Synopsis: Kate Brannigan isn't just having a bad
day. She's having a bad week. The worst week of her life, if you
really want to know. Her boyfriend's death notice is in the newspaper,
her plans to capture a team of heartless fraudsters are in disarray
and a Celtic neo-punk band under siege want her to rescue them from
the saboteurs who are trashing their posters and their gigs. As
if that isn't enough, Kate's business partner wants her to buy him
out so he can emigrate to Australia. Fine, except that private eyes
with principles never have that kind of cash. Kate can't even cry
on her best friend's shoulder, for Alexis has worries of her own.
Her girlfriend Chris is pregnant, and when the doctor responsible
for the pioneering and illegal fertility treatment is murdered,
Alexis needs Kate like she's never needed her before. So what's
a girl to do?
Delving into the alien world of medical experimentation and the
underbelly of the rock music business, Kate confronts betrayal and
cold-blooded greed as she fights to save not only her livelihood
but her life as well...
"Val McDermid's Kate Brannigan should remain firmly at
the top of the private investigator's league" Sunday
Telegraph
"Solid pleasure... so smooth you can almost kid yourself
you haven't been sitting on the edge of your seat throughout."
Mail on Sunday
"This is crime-writing of the very highest order."
The Times
