Knockout Mouse
Knockout Mouse is the first in a series of crime novels that explore the high-stakes realm of genetic engineering and biotechnology around the San Francisco Bay Area. Bill Damen is a cinematographer whose work draws him into the biotech world.
As the novel opens, a researcher mysteriously dies from something she ate at a dinner party given by Bill and his girlfriend. Bill's search for the cause of their guest's death takes him inside the science and business of bioengineering. What appears to be a case of food allergy turns out to be far more sinister as Bill digs deeper into the world of transgenic animals and genetically modified food.
Bill's attention focuses on a fast-talking former dot-commer who's trying to shift his quick-buck tactics to the biotech world. When Bill is dogged by a couple of PI's, he realizes the stakes are higher than he thought. A "knockout mouse" (an animal that has had genes knocked out for experimental purposes) at the victim's company lab turns out to hold the secret, a scientific mystery at the heart of the crime.
Bill Damen brings a wry, slightly skeptical attitude to the stories. But he is also a risk-taker, willing to put himself in the strangest of situations to solve the murder. His cinematographer's eye brings a special quality of observation. Calder's models include some of the older practitioners of the suspense novel, including Graham Greene, Eric Ambler, and Dashiell Hammett.
—Don LeLillo
