Winner of the 2002 Ned Kelly award for best crime novel for Death Delights and joint winner of the 2003 Davitt crime fiction prize for Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing, Gabrielle Lord s thrilling novel Lethal Factor is now available in A format. With a horrifying anthrax murder and the brutal, ritualistic killing of a nun, forensic examiner Jack McCain takes on two baffling new cases. Does the anthrax killing signify a frightening new wave of terrorism? And what is the meaning of the cryptic symbol gouged into a murdered nun s flesh? With his daughter in danger and his ex-wife causing him serious trouble, Jack tries to make sense of these questions, and fights to discover the identity of the anthrax assassin. Meanwhile, the mounting danger moves frighteningly close to home. Soon Jack realises the evil forces he is facing and lethal factor, anthrax s deadly protein, becomes a threat to his own life in a way he never imagined. With the odds stacked against him, he must find a way to prove beyond doubt who the anthrax killer is before it is too late...

Reviews

Most seasoned crime readers are now familiar with the conventional post-mortem mystery thanks to Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs. In Gabrielle Lord’s second Jack McCain novel we are invited instead into the scientific world of crime scene investigation and the examination of physical evidence. McCain, a Canberra-based ex-policeman, finds himself and his scientific expertise at the centre of several cases as an anthrax murderer begins to target his colleagues, an old enemy returns from the past to threaten Jack’s daughter and a nun from an enclosed order is viciously murdered and disfigured. As we have come to expect from Lord, the story is complex, encompassing wide- ranging issues from war crimes to terrorist training camps to police corruption. Some passages on the physical evidence Jack unearths, although impressive in their authority, may be a little too detailed for those readers who are not scientifically inclined, but Jack himself is a likeable protagonist, and the pace is otherwise fast and engaging. Who knew Canberra could be convincingly portrayed as a hotbed of scientific ambition and age-old enmity? Another worthwhile mystery from a writer who is building a deservedly solid fan base. Sophie Groom is manager of Angus & Robertson Hurstville. C. 2003 Thorpe-Bowker and contributors