Book Review: The Experiment

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

The Experiment     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon US Audio Book Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC Amazon Canada Audio Book
John Darnton
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Dutton, Sep 1999, $24.95, 421 pp.

For the past three decades, the Georgia barrier island has hosted a human experiment. To keep the young colony in line and the scientists safe, the brutal orderlies viciously discipline the inmates. However, one of the victims Julia begins her own investigation. Her lover Skyler searches for her when she fails to return to their colony. He finds her mutilated corpse in the morgue. Skyler escapes the island.

In Georgia, a confused Skyler notices a picture of a New York reporter whose face is his own. He heads to the Big Apple where he meets an astonished Jude Harley. Jude introduces Skyler to his girl friend Tizzie, who looks exactly like Julia. The trio begins to investigate even as the FBI and others want to stop them from learning the cloning experiments being used to harvest donor organs.

The scientific information and the ethical questions of THE EXPERIMENT are cleverly handled and incorporated as part of the plot. The lead characters are warm and their motivations fully understood. However, the research scientists appear more like the mad scientist Dr. Cyclops, and the story line falters especially at the climax. Thinking in terms of Bakishi’s Wizard when one brother kills the other with a gun, the bad guys could have easily removed Jude and Tizzie on an earlier page of the book. John Darnton remains a talented writer who makes his audience think, but his latest scientific thriller falls a bit short of believability.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner