Peter Pringle Day of the Dandelion

Day of the Dandelion

Peter Pringle

Simon & Schuster, May 2007, $25.00

ISBN: 141654075X

Royal Botanic Gardens researcher Arthur Hemmings also works as an undercover British Secret Service agent. Thus he has the perfect r sum to uncover who stole the research of Oxford Professor Alastair Scott from his lab because he understands the implications of this work on the world food supply. Scott and his assistant Tanya Petrovskaya are studying the apomixes process in which a unisex dandelion reproduces without male pollen; thus this plant forever retains its properties; humans would want to keep properties by avoiding the generational genetic shoot for those plants in the food chain.

Arthur knows the public and private sectors are filled with sharks who want to own Scott's work' whereas the professor wanted to benefit humanity. However, not all would go so far as murder, but someone did. Professor Scott drowned and Tanya vanished while another lab assistant died of anaphylactic shock. Hemmings visits the Oxford lab and from there to other parts of the prestigious university, but finds little of use until he realizes that Scott was in the way of the government industrial complex superpowers including Britain demanding control for selfish purposes thus causing the need to eliminate the altruistic professor.

Although Hemmings is too urbane especially when he digs the dirt, readers will appreciate this superb whodunit espionage thriller based on a brilliant concept executed near perfectly. A scientific breakthrough impacting the food system could prove lethal to the researcher by avaricious humans. The fast-paced story line grips readers and never slows down even when plausible scientific explanations are provided. The mystery is cleverly executed, but it is the science that makes this a winner, as Peter Pringle provides clarifications with easy to follow explanations interwoven into the plot without dumbing down his elucidations.

Harriet Klausner