The Carrier

Like the other medical/scientific mystery I just blogged about, Fertile Ground, this book by Ben Mezrich is a little tighter and more readable than previous books I have read by him. Our protagonist, Jack Collier, is a PhD student at Harvard on a personal quest to find a cure for cancer, and thus save his girlfriend who is dying. When he apparently succeeds by altering a flesh-eating bacteria to target cancer cells, he is elated. Then his world turns upside down as he is betrayed by his advisor and mentor who has framed Jack for plagiarism and made it appear that Jack's research is his own. Jack steals his samples from the lab and takes off in search of his girlfriend, unaware that the bacteria was altered by his advisor and is now a terrifying plague that Jack can transfer to people just by touching them. The FBI is after Jack. One agent wants to kill him, the other wants to understand what is going on with this terrible germ and with the man who created it. If you like Robin Cook mysteries, this one will appeal to you.