The Immortalists

Crisp writing and plotting lift this medical thriller from bestseller Mills (Darkness Falls). Brilliant microbiologist Richard Draman has the most personal of reasons to find a cure for the rare disease progeria. The ailment, which radically accelerates the aging process, has afflicted his eight-year-old daughter, Susie. Given the extremely modest numbers of its victims, research funding is always at a premium, but Draman has managed to hold things together at his lab near Baltimore. The precariousness of the Dramans' lives is exacerbated when Troy Chevalier, the widower of a scientific colleague, asks for help investigating his wife's death, officially ruled a suicide. Chevalier gives Draman a thumb drive with data she was working on, but Draman's first step to understand what's on it leads to his arrest for industrial espionage. Things only get worse from there as the threats escalate to violence aimed at Draman and his loved ones. The plot may lack originality, but the ingenuity of the beleaguered protagonist, plus booster shots of realism, make this an enjoyable read. (Dec.)