Forensic Science Fiction

CDC researcher Nadine Parker and her team are baffled. Lukas Behn’s daughter Kyndra has contracted a bizarre new virus that leaves her screaming in pain. But they can't identify any physical, biological source for that pain, not in Kyndra, nor in the dozens, then hundreds, and finally millions of children worldwide succumbing to the same virus. And no one seems to have made a connection between what's happening with the infected children and the events on a small coral reef in the South Pacific.

In 2025 America, it's hardly news when a renowned octogenarian scientist dying of cancer disappears from a local hospice, but when Kansas City Star reporter Rich Azadian begins to dig, he discovers that other elderly scientists around the world have also vanished recently - all terminally ill and receiving the same experimental treatment from a global health company.

If you were dying of cancer, would you risk entering a game that saved you from pain, even if you chanced dying early? Dorothy Hunt is not willing to go out with a whimper, but rather a bang. The main problem? Not all of her family will support her decision. This time, she gets to choose a body that isn't pretty, isn't bound by the social customs of her family and generation. "Make me ugly." Unused to video games and fighting cancer, Dorothy Hunt is focused on providing the scientists something they can't acquire without her. Data on an older human who is about to die.

Chad Huntley can’t get sick. When an influenza pandemic kills almost everyone around him, he finds himself on the run, hunted by soldiers and mercenaries, chased across a wasteland of empty houses and dying suburbs as he tries to escape Fort Worth. Mankind’s only hope is for him to partner with a brilliant virologist to find a cure - but not everyone wants a cure for the greater good.

In the halcyon days of the 23rd century, human beings are healthier, more beautiful, and more long-lived than ever before thanks to regeneration therapy from the Global Health Directorate. The assassination of a Directorate scientist starts a war between a genocidal bureaucracy and a group of self-mutilating religious fanatics.

America is on the brink of collapse. The Council has revealed itself to be the driving force behind the bio-weapon that has unleashed The Pandemic upon the world once again. There's only one problem - the Council is now public enemy number one. Cooper Braaten and his SEALs are tasked with delivering the international cabal to justice for the chaos and death unleashed when they created the weaponized virus.

From of the author of The Silk Code, winner of the 1999 Locus Award for Best First Novel, comes another intriguing blend of science fiction and hard-boiled police-procedural mystery.

While illegally street racing in the underground tunnels of Glasgow, four Harley-Davidson riders make a horrifying discovery: a dead man left in the darkness, hands together on his chest as if peacefully laid to rest. The cause of death is unclear, the only clues being a half glass of red wine and a partially eaten chunk of bread by his side that echo the ancient religious practice of sin-eating. Called to the scene, forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod is perplexed by the lack of evidence.

A genetically engineered and unstoppable cancer is spreading through Baltimore’s citizens. Doctor Robin Haynes is used to dealing firsthand with this unforgiving disease, but when every medical tool at her disposal fails, she becomes desperate for a cure. Christopher Morgan is a former illegal genetic enhancement dealer. After paying for his crimes, he’s devoted himself to developing genetic therapies to save lives. He eagerly joins Robin on a quest to engineer a treatment.

More mockery. More mayhem. More murder. Your favorite homicidal forensic pathologist Dr. Beckett Campbell is back! And this time, it appears that he might have someone on his side, someone who understands him, someone who has his back no matter what. But there is no such thing as a free lunch, nor are there drugs without side-effects. Before he can wrap his head around what, exactly, he's gotten into, Beckett finds himself tangled in a messy web of lies, deceit, and most importantly of all, relationship troubles.

Luke Abramson, a brilliant cellular biologist who is battling lung cancer, has one joy in life: his 10-year-old granddaughter, Angela. When Angela is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and given less than six months to live, Luke wants to try a new enzyme, Mortality Factor 4 (MORF4), that he believes will kill Angela's tumor. However, the hospital bureaucracy won't let him do it because MORF4 has not yet been approved by the FDA. Knowing Angela will die before he can get the treatment approved, Luke abducts her from the hospital with plans to take her to a private research laboratory in Oregon.

It's a miracle when Lysent Corp develops a cure for the zombie virus. A miracle that is years late and unbelievably expensive...and Audra's only chance to save her sister, Belinda, from the viral clutches of cannibalism and general decay. Unable to afford the treatment, Audra offers Belinda as collateral and signs up as a tagger, finding people's wandering zombie family members to be cured. If she delivers on the steep tagging quota, Lysent will cure Belinda.

As a doctor in the post-Blackout United States of America of 2087, Joe Barnes struggles to save his patients and uphold his Hippocratic Oath. Even so, he’s an idealist, and his home life is one of happy expectation as he and his wife Mary prepare to welcome their first child after a “medical miracle” makes their dream possible. But a teenaged boy dies unexpectedly on Barnes’ watch and a girl goes missing, and as Barnes becomes obsessed with finding the killer, patients keep dropping dead from strange diseases that should no longer exist at the end of the 21st century.

A rogue virus that kills pregnant women has been let loose in the world, and nothing less than the survival of the human race is at stake. Some blame the scientists, others see the hand of God, and still others claim that humanity is reaping the punishment it deserves for years of arrogance and destructiveness. Jessie Lamb is an ordinary 16-year-old girl living in extraordinary times. As her world collapses, her idealism and courage drive her toward the ultimate act of heroism.

The discovery of concealed remains in a mass grave in Russia forces top scientists to question everything they believed about human origins. For molecular biologist Kaye Lang and "virus hunter" Christopher Dicken, it means pursuing a mysterious flu-like disease that has been dormant for millions of years—and is now coming back to life. With the world threatened by a deadly epidemic, they must solve an elusive puzzle and find a way to prevent the next terrifying step in evolution.

As a child, Lili Banta ignored her grandmother's cryptic warnings to avoid children outside their Filipino community in Houston. When many of those other children fell ill, Lili ignored the whispers in her community that a vampiric aswang walked among them. Years later, Lili returns to Houston to work for the Quarantine Station of the Center for Disease Control - but she is plagued by dark, bloody dreams that consume her nights and haunt her days.

A wealthy businessman, known by most as Joe Kettleman, narrowly survives an attempt on his life. While recovering from surgery to remove a bullet, imaging reveals a lethal tumor. Unwilling to spend his final days under chemical bombardment, he returns to a remote cabin in New Mexico to die in peace. But when death takes its time and Joe outlives his supplies, he's forced to take a perilous journey through the deserts of the Bisti Badlands. Two days into what was supposed to be a five day trek, Joe comes across a town.

In near-future Baltimore, scientific breakthroughs in genetic engineering promise to cure the incurable. But these new technologies are not without a dark side. Powerful criminal organizations thrive on peddling illicit genetic wares, waging an underground war unlike any the city has ever seen. Their numbers are growing, and their very existence threatens the stability of the city and the future of biotechnology.

Forensic scientists study evidence to figure out who committed a crime. But how do they determine the cause of death? And how do they use trained dogs and devices to track scents? Learn about the latest tools and techniques in use by forensic scientists, and discover how their work helps bring criminals to justice.

Chis Morgan is a talented genetic engineer with a complicated past. Dr. Robin Haynes is helping him move forward and make amends for his transgressions by developing a revolutionary gene therapy to help countless others. It doesn’t take long for him to believe that he has managed to rise above the criminal world of illegal biotechnology. Or so he thinks.... While treating a patient, Robin discovers a dangerous pathogen long-since thought to be eradicated. Her investigations lead to a startling and terrifying revelation.