As Boko Haram overruns Lagos, Nigeria, Dave Clement escapes, moving his revolutionary malaria vaccine program to Sierra Leone, expecting a more peaceful reception. Instead, sinister forces work to use the vaccine to foster an agenda to seize power and inflict a genocide that could kill millions. When Dave discovers the plot, he tries to stop it, only to find his fifteen year old daughter back home in Colorado is being held hostage to force his cooperation. No matter what Dave does, the conspirators relentlessly drive their new world order forward. With everything he ever cherished on the line, he races the clock to save his daughter and millions of others. Ripped from today’s headlines, this breathtaking roller coaster ride undulates from the snow-capped Rockies of northern Colorado to the rain-soaked jungles of West Africa. Birthright, Book 1 of the Public Offerings series, is a cinematic and breathtaking adventure into the 21st century heart of darkness. Installment # 1 in the Public Offerings series. Winner of the prestigious Writers League of Texas competition for best thriller. First in the four book Public Offerings thriller series.
KIRKUS REVIEW... In LiVolsi’s debut thriller, a Colorado pharmaceutical firm may hold the key to eradicating AIDS, but powerful people are willing to kill countless others to find the AIDS cure.Dave Clement, a vice president at Prodeus, Inc., has been working with the Aldrich Institute in using the Portable DNA Analyzer in West Africa; it identifies candidates for a malaria vaccine and ensures that those who are HIV-positive were infected prior to their vaccination for malaria. But Aldrich Executive Director Claire McQuaid may have another agenda; she hopes to include a Trojan horse in the vaccine to combat HIV. The Trojan horse isn’t ready and will kill patients in mere months, but Claire and her colleague Eldridge Perry are only concerned with wiping out AIDS—they believe those who die are expendable. While Dave searches for a way to save his daughter, Liv, who’s contracted HIV, and repair his fractured family, Sheila Stratemeier, the institute’s lead developer for the malaria vaccine, tries to warn anyone she can about the potential deaths of thousands. LiVolsi’s novel, the first in a series of four, is a densely plotted thriller that churns out suspenseful scenes: Civil unrest in Nigeria and Sierra Leone is lucidly detailed with relentless explosions, and even Dave’s racing to Liv’s volleyball game is tense. Characters are refreshingly intricate. Protagonist Dave isn’t a flawless hero; he seems to be an obsessive workaholic. The bad guys are even better; they’re villainized by their actions, but while Eldridge is undoubtedly menacing, Claire is tortured, so mentally distraught by her scarred body that she rejects intimacy. As the start of a series, the book establishes a labyrinthine plot that never quite catches up to itself. There’s much more teased in Book One than questions answered, from the unknown manner in which Liv contracted HIV and the source of her apparent hallucinations to the fates of numerous characters in West Africa. A terrific launch for the author’s series, but readers may want to have the sequels handy.
