Greer, author of the popular CJ Floyd mystery series (Limited Time; The Devil's Backbone), ushers in two compelling new protagonists in this fast-paced tale of medical research gone awry. Dr. Carmen Nguyen is a half-black, half-Vietnamese emergency room physician at a hospital in the Colorado desert; her patient-turned-lover, Walter Rios, is a rugged river-rafter recovering from a near-fatal fishing accident. Together, they come to the assistance of Luke Redstone, an ornery cockfighter dying of a rare form of leukemia caused by mining yellow-cake uranium in his younger days. While Redstone receives treatment in the hospital, someone steals his prized fighting cocks, known for their unusual vigor and bloodthirstiness. Nguyen and Rios soon discover that an unscrupulous Denver biotech executive, Jack Kimbrough, has taken an abnormal interest in Redstone's birds and possesses inside knowledge of how they dominated the fighting circuit. (A secondary character in the CJ Floyd series, the Denver bail bondsman's assistant, Flora Jean, is on the case, too.) With Nguyen's medical expertise and Rio's investigative wile, the pair find that Kimbrough may have come up with a way to replicate the physical invincibility of Redstone's cocks in human beings. It's a discovery that could be worth billions—and could lead to murder. Greer effectively evokes the Western setting with his clean, uncluttered prose and introduces a winning crime-fighting duo. (Oct. 28)
