Change Agent

Starred review from February 20, 2017
This outstanding speculative thriller from bestseller Suarez (Kill Decision) imagines a future of “living technology—a fourth industrial revolution of synthetic biology and genetic editing,” as the author puts it in an opening note to the reader. In 2045, Kenneth Durand mines data for Interpol’s Singapore-based Genetic Crimes Division, using algorithms to locate labs that cater to parents-to-be seeking to give their progeny a better life via illegal genetic therapies. The targeted genetic edits were initially intended to eliminate birth defects, but their potential for improving mental and physical capacity attracts those looking to provide their children with as many advantages as they can afford. An even more frightening prospect is realized when Durand himself is injected with a change agent that edits enough of his cells to make him the image of the criminal mastermind he’s been pursuing. His quest to get his life back integrates a classic Hitchcockian theme into a terrifying brave new world. The depth and sophistication of Suarez’s dystopian world—not to mention his facility at making complex science intelligible to the nonexpert—rivals anything Michael Crichton ever did. Agent: Rafe Sagalyn, ICM.

February 1, 2017
In the year 2045, Singapore-based Interpol agent Kenneth Durand's campaign against black-market gene editing is set back when he's injected with a synthetic "change agent" that transforms him into the spitting image of his evil nemesis.That would be Marcus Demang Wyckes, ruthless head of the human-trafficking Huli jing cartel. What makes Durand's transformation shocking and spectacular is that the only known altering of DNA segments has been performed on embryos, to meet parents' desires for healthier, smarter, or more attractive offspring. Jabbed with a needle by one of Wyckes' men, Durand has his entire genomic code rewritten, a procedure that takes months to complete and leaves him in a coma from which he was not meant to recover. The plan was to have him die looking like Wyckes so people would think the cartel head was dead and Durand's successors wouldn't keep pursuing him. Durand escapes but finds himself chased by both bad guys who want to kill him and law enforcement agents who think he's Wyckes while he heads to Malaysia to have a black-market geneticist restore his original DNA via a risky reverse edit. Along the way, we are introduced to ultrasophisticated police drones, tiny Shrimp cars, and drug printers that produce synthetic opioids from mundane ingredients. While the action scenes are plenty lively, the best thing about the book is its depiction of a troublesome future in which people can change physical identities the way they change clothes. The tattoos that appear on Durand's arm when he's angry and recede when he isn't are only one of the novel's cool details. A natural at making future shocks seem perfectly believable, Suarez (Influx, 2014, etc.) delivers his most entertaining high-tech thriller yet.

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March 15, 2017
The ultimate form of identity theft is just a genetic edit away in Suarez's (Influx, 2014) newest fast-paced, speculative thriller. A fourth industrial revolution in the near-future, based on synthetic biology and DNA revision, leads to new high-tech crimes. In the course of closing down illicit baby labs, Kenneth Durand of Interpol's Genetic Crime Division is targeted by the leader of a formidable, technologically advanced criminal organization. Injected with a change agent intended to transform his DNA and leave him dead, Durand miraculously survives, though as the brutal crime lord Marcus Wyckes, the most wanted man on the planet. Forced on the run from the GCD and being tracked by a terrifying, barely human enforcer sent to finish the job, Kenneth wonders if he is becoming Wyckes in more than physical form. The longer he remains Marcus, the more he adapts to his new physique, enjoying the automatic respect and fear his appearance engenders and the satisfaction gained from violently enforcing his will. Offer this to Michael Crichton and science fiction-suspense fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

November 15, 2016

In this futuristic thriller, Interpol agent Kenneth Durand battles black market labs that genetically alter human embryos for a price, offering so-called vanity edits tested on human-trafficking victims. Then a single needle prick turns Durand into Marcus Demang Wyckes, the very villain he's pursuing. Suarez's four previous titles (e.g., 2014's Influx) sell a total of nearly 40,000 titles a year.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.