The Devil's DNA

About the Book

The Devil´s DNA is a novel about the mystery of DNA.  It attempts to tease the reader´s intellect and defy traditional categories -  possibly it is a novel of ideas produced in reponse to the science of genetic engineering, possibly a thriller, possibly a Scottish romance.

It can be seen as  a response to the science of genetic engineering, just as Robert Louis Stevenson´s "The Body Snatcher" was a response to the new science of anatomy.  The plot is that of an adventure story in which the villains use genetic engineering for illegal purposes.  The book also incorporates an exploration of the theme of genetics in a wider sense, encompassing popular genealogies of kings and queens, family and sexual relationships, and the author´s own blood relationship to RLS.  

The book is set mainly in Scotland, in Edinburgh and East Lothian, the places where RLS and the author lived as children.  The little island, the Bass Rock, which Stevenson uses for a kidnap in "Catriona" and on which he placed a protagonist with the name of the author´s great grandfather, is central to the book.

More Info: http://www.cynthialucydale.org.uk/Frontpage/index_ddna.htm

Email: cynthia@cynthialucydale.org.uk

About the Author

Cynthia Lucy Dale was born in 1953, in the month in which two Cambridge scientists, James Watson and Francis Crick, informed the world that the DNA molecule was in the shape of a double helix. She was born in Edinburgh and she was baptized in the church at Whitekirk, beside the hill where John Blackadder held his last conventicle before being taken prisoner on the Bass Rock. Her great grandmother, Joanna Jesse Smith, was a cousin of Robert Louis Stevenson and her great grandfather features in Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Tale of Tod Lapraik" as Tam Dale, a jailer on the Bass. Cynthia Lucy Dale believes herself to be descended from John Blackadder, the famous Covenanter and martyr, who died after nearly five years imprisoned on the Bass in the Days of the Persecution.