Gene Pool

Night comes to Whitton Falls, and with it a death, and then another, and then a third. For Cate Somers, paleontologist and researcher, the university town she thought of as a safe harbor has an insidious element at work. Whoever--or whatever--is attacking local residents has an agenda that’s accelerating. Cate is called on to help in the investigation, along with the sheriff's nephew, Wyatt, a homicide detective from New York. But everything she assumes about what is going on is altered when her biologist friend Emma analyzes metal objects found at the killing sites. Each one contains the attributes of anaerobic bacteria, the sort that NASA and ExoMars would expect to show up on other planets. The series of murders has left a trail of evidence that has its origins in a peculiar chemistry. The rules of what is ordinary no longer seem to apply. Cate gradually becomes aware that there is a hidden presence, alien and cold and impossible to stop.