cover image THE EXPERIMENT

THE EXPERIMENT

Stephen Kyle, . . Warner, $7.99 (400pp) ISBN 978-0-446-60944-9

This haunting thriller from Kyle (After Shock, etc.) revolves around experiments performed in Nazi concentration camps. The story opens in 1945 with SS medical officer Dr. Viktor Schiller in a frantic race to beat the American troops to Otzenhausen, the camp holding the female prisoners he used in his genetic experiments. His visions of bettering mankind by enabling knowledge and memories to be passed from mother to child has gone bad and instead given rise to a mutant gene that causes its carriers to be born without a conscience. When the camp is seized before Schiller can eliminate the last child bearing the gene, he takes the identity of a Jewish doctor and flees to New York. Nearly 30 years later, Schiller, now a successful neurosurgeon, finds Alana Marks, the daughter of one of his victims, and her teenaged son. To stop the gene from being passed from generation to generation, he must eliminate them both, a job made more difficult by the fact that his son is romantically involved with Alana. A contrived conclusion disappoints, but Kyle keeps the cinematic action scenes and nail-biting suspense rolling throughout. (Jan.)