A book about a patent lawyer shouldn't be this interesting.
I stumbled onto this series while looking for books with a hearty story that don't go light on the science. Of all things, this book is written by a PhD in Art History.
The story is about a clinical trial for a drug to "cure obesity" -- and there's extensive descriptions of labs, lab procedure, and a lab book which ultimately ends up factoring into the story very heavily.
There's a lot of human drama, too -- somebody's dead ex-wife may or may not have been involved in the patent case -- and somebody's young child may or may not be suffering from a rare genetic condition impacted by the drug trial's failure.
Girl Power Highlights: Written by a woman, scientists are women (but not because they are Bond's Christmas Jones--kill me now--or some similar caricature). Drama between women isn't about dudes, so a nice passing of the Bechdel test.
The final scene was the best in the book. A lot of things pulling together into a scary, fiery, watery, stormy action sequence, touched by sacrificial family love.
