Book Review – Helix Genesis

As announced a few weeks ago, this year I’m going to buy, read and review one book per month. I choose among the community on Instagram. Before Christmas, in fact, I asked my followers to suggest me their books to buy, read and review in 2020.

So here I am with the first one! Don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter to receive news about the next reviews!

Helix Genesis by Chris Lofts is a thriller set in England in a future time. An epidemic of Ebola decimated the populace, and the world is still recovering. People are slowly regaining some normality.

Even if there are several points of view, the main character is indubitably Major Nathan Helix, a war hero who keeps serving his country working as a crime investigator.

The story begins as a typical murder mystery – a body found in suspicious circumstances, an investigator sent on the scene to collect evidence and information, and a killer on the loose. But it quickly transforms in something different (even better!) when Major Helix founds that things are way more complicated than the situation suggested.

I really enjoyed reading this book for three main reasons:

1. The setting: without watering down the story with long descriptions or explanations, the author depicts an interesting future world, where the latest technology advances in big towns, with automated vehicles, biometric security and personalized commercials, while country villages are back to a basic system of autarky and barter.
2. The main character: Nathan Helix embodies the tormented hero very well. He has demons, a strong sense of justice which often in conflict with his sense of duty. The author keeps a good balance between Helix’s most human side and the military training that makes him positively lethal.
3. The plot: from murder mystery, to a tale of revenge, to an international conspiracy. The plot of Helix Genesis kept me captivated from the beginning to the end. Using the cast of characters and the changes in points of view wisely, the author brings the reader in a smooth ride between plot twists and action scenes.

Since English is not my mother language, it took me a while to get into the style of the author, the technical terms and the details of this future world. However, this didn’t deprive me of the pleasure of reading.

I strongly recommend this book, both if you enjoy a good thriller or if you are more into science fiction. Helix Genesis cover both genres admirably, delivering a no frills action-packed story. For me it’s a 5 stars read.

A word from the author…

Blurb

A vengeful war hero. A politician’s wife. A lethal pathogen. Scores to settle.

London 2039. The post-Ebola population tolerates each other in two unequal parts. The Cardinal City elite enjoy a life of privilege, comfort and plenty, while those outside forage, hunt and dig for survival.

Major Nathan Helix, VC DSO has given twenty years of his life and sacrificed half of his body in service to his country. The price for his rehabilitation is at least ten years further service to the Cardinal of the Eastern Sector. He refuses to accept that his special forces career is over, regarding his promotion, decorations and new life of investigating trivial crime among the city glitterati no substitute.

Doctor Gabrielle Stepper, the venerated scientist credited with defeating the Ebola pandemic, craves a life of normality and anonymity. Trapped in a loveless marriage to the ambitious Chancellor of the Exchequer, she seeks solace outside the city in the arms of a fellow member of the Scientific Elite. Her hopes for future happiness are extinguished when her lover is found poisoned with evidence that Stepper was the last person to see her alive.

Helix has long admired Stepper and, when assigned to investigate, he refuses to believe her capable of murder. When he also learns that she has discovered a pathogen, equal in virulence to Ebola and someone is trying to steal it, he will do anything to protect her and the research. He foils an attempt to kidnap her, orchestrated by Colonel Terry McGill, his former nemesis and the architect of his older brother’s death. With McGill back in his sights and Stepper on the run, Helix is torn between tracking her down, or avenging the death of his sibling under the burgeoning threat of a biological attack with the power to finish the job that Ebola started.

Chris Lofts

I live in the coastal town of Herne Bay which is the county of Kent in south-east England (UK). Together with my wife Corinne we are the human slaves to our two cats (Monty and Moss) and a family of chickens.

Previously, I worked as an IT Project Manager and I started writing when travelling and “living” in hotels while away with my job. I came relatively late to writing but always felt I had a book or two in me.

I love action and psychological thrillers so it seemed natural to me to write in the same genre. Now, having hung up my project plan, I spend my days writing and marketing my work which is a labour of love.