The TATA-Box Virus

About the Book

The AIDS virus has undergone a subtle genetic mutation, known as a TATA box insertion, giving it the terrifying ability to be spread from person to person through insect bites.  As the epidemic, termed vectored AIDS (VAIDS) takes wing during a hot, humid Baltimore summer, chief forensic pathologist Dr. Steve Ellis is faced with its sixth horribly disfigured victim.  The opening chapter of "The TATA-Box Virus" pulls the reader into the chilling realm of the medical autopsy theatre where they experience the disturbing macabre scene of the forensic dissection hands-on through Ellis' eyes, thoughts, and first person dialogue.  Ellis and colleagues face a critical dilemma concerning his official report.  Alert the public and provoke panic. Suppress the report and be responsible for a potential medical disaster.

Ellis' experience alerts him to the dangers posed by either solution.  However, his untactful negotiating skills place him in direct opposition with officials with the Center for Disease Control, and in particular Dr. Arlene Hagan who is attempting to assume control of the situation.  Their decision is pre-empted when his report is curiously leaked to news reporters. Ellis finds himself in the spotlight. His position becomes even more bleak when it is revealed that he has made a large stock purchase of XenoPharm, a company which had accidentally stumbled onto an effective treatment for a disease such as VAIDS.  Curiously, the treatment had arrived before the disease. As XenoPharm's stock value skyrockets, Ellis' motives are probed as his windfall profits climb.  His attempts to regain control of his career and his life are undermined by a stress-induced plunge back into a debilitating constellation of compulsive behaviours.  

Or so it seems.  Overcoming obstacles, his family and close colleagues help him resurrect his life and together they begin to patch evidence which ultimately will clear Ellis of complicity.  Using advanced computer hacking skills they trace the complex molecular fingerprint of the virus back to XenoPharm, a pharmaceutical company with a long history of AIDS research and wranglings with the Food and Drug Administration relating to their promotion of "Targovir", an antiviral agent which despite its hype was ineffective against AIDS.  As they probe further, they find evidence pointing to Arlene Hagan's insider role as a central figure in the backroom dealings of XenoPharm.  Hagan is a multifaceted antagonist.  An obsessive sexual predator with expensive habits all of which are disguised by her current high-profile appointment.  As her involvement in the epidemic becomes revealed Hagan seeks to destroy those bent on uncovering her motives.  Ellis finds himself the central target of her obsessions and narrowly escapes becoming her final victim.

About the Author

Dr. Thomas J. O'Brien is one of North America's most credible forensic pathologists with an extensive diagnostic and research career which has explored some of the world's most vexing emerging epidemics over the last decade. Mad Cow Disease, West-Nile virus, AIDs, are just some of the infectious deadly diseases which cross from species to species with gripping consequences for mankind. Through the character of Dr. Steven Ellis, these emerging medical crises are brought forward through characterization and plot lines which are expected to be appealing to readers of medical thrillers. Dr. Ellis, Baltimore's chief medical forensic pathologist, through his idiosyncratic views of life, science & society, carries the reader from chilling unexpected beginnings to unanticipated conclusions.