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Dr. Frank Simmons works in the University of Edinburgh’s medical school. One of his PhD students, brilliant loner Gavin, announces his intention to find a cure for cancer and actually makes a major breakthrough. Oddly, no one seems to be interested, and a picture emerges of a cancer research industry caught in a desperate paradox: it can only justify its existence by not curing cancer.

Disinterest soon turns to open warfare as Simmons and Gavin’s work is sabotaged. A truly compelling story, this fast-paced scientific thriller blends superb dialogue with thought-provoking ideas.

When John McKirrop takes shelter in a deserted graveyard one night, he witnesses the disinterment of the body of a young boy. Yet no one takes much notice of his stories. After all, who would believe the rantings of a homeless drunk?

Father Ryan Lafferty, the local priest, is trying to help the boy’s distraught father find his son’s body. Alarmed by implications of black magic, he becomes even more inquisitive when McKirrop dies under suspicious circumstances.

At the same time, a young female doctor, Sarah Lasseter, begins to query procedures at the trauma unit where she treated both the missing boy and McKirrop. Sarah and Father Ryan join forces as it becomes clear that beneath the cover of the noble advancement of medicine there is, ironically, both a sinister and horrific invention and a brilliant discovery — for which someone is prepared to kill, at whatever cost.

When an apparent animal rights stunt sends shockwaves from the quiet English countryside to the corridors of Whitehall, Sci-Med, an elite investigative agency, sends Dr Steven Dunbar to uncover the truth. However, as a series of brutal incidents lays siege to the unassuming villagers, it is clear that even those held responsible are unable to explain the events or predict what is yet to come. Encountering even more frightening security measures enforced by unknown authorities, Dunbar realises that those who might hold the keys to the mystery are not prepared to help him, and those who have unleashed it will stop at nothing to fulfil their apocalyptic ambitions.

As our most sophisticated means of protection are shown to be useless, the ex-Special Forces medic is tested to the limit. Alone in a race against unspeakable tragedy, he must imagine the unthinkable — and all he knows is that, when the storm breaks, it’ll already be too late.

When successful neurosurgeon John MacAndrew performs a routine operation to remove a tumour, the patient undergoes a severe personality change post-surgery. Hartman’s Tumour is diagnosed, a rare condition which leaves its victims deranged and destined to be confined to mental institutions. There is no option but to have the patient committed.

The patient’s husband blames MacAndrew for the dreadful outcome and sets about to ruin his career. With an uncertain future ahead of him, MacAndrew retreats to his native Scotland to lick his wounds and it there that he makes further discoveries about the mysterious illness and the chemical that induced it.

The damage wrought by the chemical affects the brain cells that normally block out a person’s memory of past lives, with the result of the appearance of multiple personality disorder in sufferers. Armed with this knowledge, MacAndrew thinks he may be able to save his patient, until he discovers someone is deliberately using the chemical to regress selected individuals and gain eyewitness accounts of events in the past.