The Carrier

Rating:
Summary: Fast Moving Medical Thriller
Review: "The Carrier" by Holden Scott, St. Martin's Press, 2000.

A Fast Moving Book mixing modern gene therapy with the modern concern for the upcoming plague.

The author, Scott Holden, combines a fairly deep knowledge of modern genetic laboratories with a story of politics in the university setting. His main character is a genius Ph. D. candidate (Jack Collier) from New Jersey who ignores the jealousies on the university campus (Harvard of all places) until his advisor, Professor Dutton springs a rather large conspiracy on Jack. Jack Collier is expelled for plagiarism, while it is Dutton who had done the real plagiarism. In hopes of a Nobel Prize, Dutton steals Jack's work, which was intended as a cure for cancer. In stealing Jack's discovery, Prof. Dutton inadvertently changes the cure into a killer. Jack carries the killer/cure across the United States, while being pursued by FBI agents, one of whom is a psycho and another a Ph.D. in Biology. This is an interesting sub-plot all on its own.

The book is well written, but some discrepancies crept in: I do not think that the Boston Police Department has legal authority in Cambridge, where Harvard is located. The references to the BPD should have been to Cambridge Police. On p. 209, the editor permitted "stewardess" to be used, when today's correct usage is "flight attendant". On p. 191, the verb "affects" was used when the noun, "effects" was required. All of this is minor compared to the fast-moving story combining many modern themes.

Rating:
Summary: BE CAREFUL....
Review: After you read this book, you will probably never want to use a public toilet again! When Holden Scott first started writing as Ben Mezrich, there was an obvious talent there that somehow seemed to elude critical or public acclaim. However, since changing his name and writing "Skeptic," seems his fate is a little more promising.
"The Carrier" is a by the numbers chase thriller, which has some interesting scenarios, and some truly frightening scenes (reference to the above mentioned public toilet scene..yipes!). However, so many "coincidences" occur and agent Thomas Moon is so over the top that you have to grimace at some of the cliches Scott uses. However, this is an effectively creepy and involving book, one that flows nicely and gives us another one of Mezrich/Scott's typical young medical heroes who is caught up in the bureaucratic/evil world of modern science. You can't help but admire Jack and his quest to save his beloved Angie from cancer; and you can't help but hate Michael Dutton, who cruelly steals Jack's "miracle."
A nice, engaging read and one that I recommend; it's fun.

Rating:
Summary: Fast-paced medical thriller
Review: Heard the taped version of THE CARRIER by Holden Scott,
a medical thriller about a brilliant Ph.D. candidate at Harvard
who has an idea that will make medical history . . . he
has trained a type of bacteria that will attack tumors rather
than healthy flesh . . . but his mentor steals the idea from
him . . . very fast-paced story that kept my attention until
the very end . . . I really felt for Jack Colier, the main
character, and could empathize with his many trials and tribulations.

Rating:
Summary: Good read for thriller fans
Review: Jack Collier has a brilliant idea that will not only attain him his Ph.D. from Harvard, but cure cancer. However, his faculty advisor Dr. Dutton steals the ideal of training Strep A bacteria to eat tumors leaving Jack expelled for plagiarism and feeling heartbroken.

Jack flees Harvard to seek his former girlfriend who is dying from cancer. However, unbeknownst to Jack he has become infected with his cure, turning him into a modern day but deadlier Typhoid Mary. He kills anyone who comes in physical contact with him. With the FBI wanting to stop Jack before others die, while others want Jack dead before he reveals the truth, he continues his trek cross country to try to save a life.

THE CARRIER is an exciting, fast-paced medical thriller that falls a bit short of being a classic horror tale. The story line moves so fast that readers will finish it quickly, but feel very little towards the characters in the process. Even though this tale is not quite what it could have been, any one skeptical about Holden Scott's talent will realize he is a major player who needs to know speed kills interesting plots, even one that is still fun to read.

Harriet Klausner