Mortals As They Walk

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McDowell’s third novel is set in the near future when biotechnology is stretching the limits of ethics and legality. Three people: a man, a woman, and a young child, are caught up in a heavily funded project based on the theories of the brilliant geneticist, Vladimir Androvich, which involve gene-editing, bio-engineering, and selective breeding. While the geneticist is only interested in the benefits to humanity, bio-research firms, Big Pharm, military organizations, governments, and black marketeers see the project as a way to become fabulously wealthy and powerful.

The subjects become suspicious that they are not being told everything about the Project. When the results are successful, their lives are torn apart as the various groups vie for the technology and the child.

In the midst of kidnappings, payoffs, political intrigue, underground mayhem, and murder, the test subjects and project staff must wrestle with the ethical and legal dilemmas they have unleashed upon the world, decide what to do with the data and the lives that have been destroyed—and find a way to save the child.

Markus McDowell is an author & editor of fiction in multiple genres, and nonfiction an academic works in law, theology, and ancient literature. He lives on a boat and travels extensively.