Fiction Pick of the Week: Perfect People

Perfect People by Peter James 2012

After losing their first son to a rare fatal interaction between the couple’s gene pools, John and Naomi have decided to have another son. They seek the assistance of Dr. Leo Dettore, a genetic scientist, who offers a gene-screening process which allows couples to “design” their unborn children. As Dr. Dettore’s patients begin to die at the hands of a murderous cult, the couple flees to England, believing they are safe.

Their troubles have only begun. After Naomi delivers boy-girl twins, and not the son they had selected, they realize the ethical dilemmas of the doctor’s plan for a new breed of humanity. In this well-written, fast-paced page-turner, both the main characters and the readers are left questioning the ethics of genetic manipulation.