Genesis Code

After hearing the confession of a renowned scientist who is now dying, the pastor of a remote parish in the Umbrian region of Italy rushes to Rome to alert the Vatican powers of an unspeakable sin. Within months, Joe Lassiter, a D.C.-area detective, learns of the brutal deaths of his sister, Kathy, and her toddler son, Brandon, in a mysterious fire in their home in suburban Burke, Va., in which an unknown Italian arsonist was also horribly burned. While Joe and the D.C. police keep watch on the burn victim, Brandon's body is dug from its grave and set afire again. After this horror, Joe discovers that Kathy and Brandon were only two of 34 victims worldwide, all mothers and toddler boys, killed in their beds and then burned beyond recognition. They were all connected through an Umbrian fertility clinic run by a scientist and theologian who, not unexpectedly, is himself now dead, his clinic a pile of ashes. At the center of this international carnage looms Umbra Domini, Shadow of the Lord, an ultra-secret Roman Catholic fraternity. At great risk, Joe sets out to save the one woman and child who have so far escaped Umbra's reach and in doing so discovers the staggering truth about these slaughtered innocents. Case, an investigative reporter, writes with intelligence and flair. He has built a first-rate thriller with an astonishingly timely revelation that's well worth staying up late for. (Apr.)