Death by DNA

Books premise:

Tom O'Dell is rural Wisconsin dairy veterinarian who has his own practice. With the emergence of worldwide unexplained instantaneous mass animal deaths, Tom is drafted by the USDA to be a CDC trained investigator and help protect the agricultural economy from devastation. Trained at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, he becomes part of a worldwide team of scientists to find a cause of these deaths. The team's first cases involve the death of 220 cows and heifer calves in a herd of free range beef cattle grazing on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, where only the bulls and steers are untouched. There they meet an ancient Lakota Sioux shaman whose dreams and visions have predicted the arrival of a 'Destroyer', who will bring on worldwide Armageddon. The team is commissioned by the old man to find this destroyer of life and that leads them on a worldwide manhunt. They team up with French investigators from the prestigious Pasteur Institute and an old Parisian Nazi hunter. The man depicted in the old Indian's journals is discovered to be Wilheim Berhetzel, a Nazi war criminal, thought to be long-dead in a post-war plane crash into a Swiss mountainside. His death camp experiments to discover a fountain of youth drug and a lethal death ray weapon becomes his obsession, which he continues to perfect in the secluded rainforests of Argentina. He emerges on the world stage again during his assassination attempt on the President of France with his perfected weapon. The team's pursuit leads them through Europe and back to South America where they barely escape Berhetzel's attempt to kill them. The Nazi then disappears only to reappear in the United States with designs of overthrowing the government with mass extermination of the country's leaders at the presidential inauguration ceremony.

My review:

I did enjoythis book. It’s a scary and imaginative premise in how Berhetzel, the Nazi war criminal, combined technology and DNA to invent a way to kill either specific persons or species of animals. I liked the characters and how they were put together to identify and destroy Berhetzel and his followers. There are Native American Shamen, vets and tech bods. The interaction between Kate and Tom though was a bit too cheesy and just didn’t feel right or believable, however, I didn’t want the story to end. The mysterious and creepy deaths, the hunt and the suspense of will they stop the carnage was thoroughly entertaining. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

All over the world, there are reports of birds dropping dead from the sky, cows dropping dead in the field and many more. Only certain species of the animals die at once, their closely-related species remain unharmed. In certain places, only the female died while the males survived. These strange incidents bring three veterinarians and one shaman together.

Kate, Brad, and Tom are the three veterinarians and Joseph is the Shaman. Joseph’s late great-grandfather Nelson had visions of The Destroyer. With the help of Nelson’s journals, Kate, Brad, Tom, and Joseph are off to solve the mystery behind these strange incidents.

The story is just marvelous! As the title suggests, all the deaths have one thing in common – DNA! But what does DNA got to do with these mysterious incidents? It is pretty well known that the Nazis were up to a series of experiments during the WW2. One such experiment was to reverse the process of ageing. Or rather, slow the process of ageing. During the process of finding this anti-ageing drug, Wilheim Berhetzel, a Nazi doctor stumbles upon something that creates shocking results.

During the end of the war, Berhetzel tried to escape but was believed to be killed in a plane crash. Robert DuBois is a famous and respected Nazi hunter who has brought many evil people to justice. The four (Kate, Tom, Brad, and Joesph) seek Robert’s help in finding clues about Berhetzel’s experiments. It is initially believed that Berhetzel’s next generation or an ardent follower is proceeding with the DNA experiments but they are in for a shock when they see Berhetzel, who is supposed to be in his nineties but looks like he’s in this late twenties.

This book reminded of the documentary titled Hunting Hitler. After the war, Nazi hunters did a great job finding Nazi War criminals and bringing them to justice – the punishment mostly included death sentences. It is believed that most of the war criminals escaped to Argentina and Berhetzel was one of them.

The author is a real genius. To come up with such an idea is no piece of cake! Killing certain species just by their DNA! WOW! I found the writing style a bit weird though. The conversations between the characters were long and sometimes boring. The romance between Kate and Tom was too mushy. There were a few silly jokes here and there, which was okay. The plot was interesting. Although I felt that the story was a drag in a few places (the conversations part of it), it still found it interesting. I generally read a book for the story and I do not care much about the presentation, as long the story is not going off-track and manages to keep the reader in suspense until the end. If you are like me, go ahead and read Death By DNA. It is a really good book with an interesting plot.

"Death by DNA" eBook was published in 2016 and was written by Pierce Roberts. This is Mr. Robert's first publication. 

I categorize this novel as ‘PG’ because it contains scenes of Violence, Mature Situations, and Mature Language. The story is set primarily in contemporary Europe and South America. The primary character is Tom O’Dell, a rural Wisconsin dairy veterinarian. 

Something is causing animal specie deaths across the world in small localized areas. O'Dell is one of many vets across the country that are drafted by the USDA to investigate. They are sent to Atlanta for training and there he meets the lovely Dr. Kate Vensky of the USDA. Not long after the training, over 200 cows and heifer calves are found dead on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. While there investigating, O'Dell and his colleagues meet a Lakota Sioux shaman who has seen a vision of a 'Destroyer' coming. 

As their investigation continues, they suspect that the cause of the animal deaths is the result of an invention originating in Nazi Germany. It becomes a race as to whether they will find who is behind the plot before the killing becomes widespread and targeted at humans. As they proceed, they find that their investigation and very lives are under threat from Nazi sympathizers. 

I thought that the 11+ hours I spent reading this 433 page thriller were interesting. The story combined romance, religion and the paranormal as well as some science fiction. While I liked the overall plot, I think it could have been given more intensity. Likewise, I think the characters could have had more depth to them. I think better cover art could have been chosen. I give this novel a 3.5 (rounded up to a 4) out of 5.

Further book reviews I have written can be accessed at https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/.

My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).