Juris Jurjevics The Trudeau Vector

The Trudeau Vector

Juris Jurjevics

Viking, Aug 2005, $24.95, 416 pp.

ISBN: 0670034371

The rescue team went out searching for the four missing members of the international scientific team stationed at Trudeau Arctic Research Station on a six month tour. They found three dead near the ice cap hole under study with their bodies monstrously misshapen; the conclusion was death was a welcome respite from the agony they must have suffered. The fourth person apparently wandered away from the party and was found also dead, frozen naked. No one knows what happened and the weather prevents any evacuating the survivors from there.

The Canadian government parachutes epidemiologist Jessie Hanley into the remote site to learn what caused the grotesque deaths. Hanley searches for fatal bacteria or a virus. Meanwhile unbeknownst to the scientist is that a nearby Russian submarine succumbed to the same disease while escorting a rogue scientist into the Arctic. While talking with her dyslexic son by satellite and making love with a hunk of an Inuit, Hanley tries to track down the cause of the disaster before others die as she now believes one of the crew is heavily involved, but whom?

This is exciting thriller starring a wonderful protagonist who does a yeoman's job to balance (albeit long distance) the needs of her son with her work. The story line is action-packed, but the beauty of the tale lies with the harsh vivid description of the frozen tundra that leaves no room for error. Part mystery, but mostly an environmental thriller, fans of action-packed biotech errors leading to contagions will want to read the fast-paced THE TRUDEAU VECTOR.

Harriet Klausner