I gave this one almost 150 pages before realizing that I didn't care and I probably wasn't going to. The writing is clumsy at best, and I just cannot bring myself to have an opinion about the main characters at all. ( )

Very good (like 4.5 stars good). Nature vs. Nurture. Free will vs. genetics. Pure logic vs. the heart wanting what it wants. The story is told in two threads. Julia, our modern day geneticist & Lavinia, her great-great grandmother. The women's lives unfold for us as their marriages unravel & the aftermath of the events follow. I very much enjoyed that both women were scientifically minded & took their work seriously. I felt for Lavinia when she was cut off from hers & was glad Julia still had hers when everything else fell apart. Julia's research with the soldiers was a fascinating thread of the story & I still don't know on which side I am of the ethical implications of her undertaking it for the military. I'll be thinking about that for some time. That said, I enjoyed the resolution to it at the end. I did like how the Bakairi tribe & The Tempest were additional threads that tied the two women's stories together across time.

I was very interested in both women but other than them, I only really felt any empathy for Colonel Huntington (though the head shaving of Lavinia & subsequent forced visit to the phrenologist tested that). Julia's husband Klaus was just not sympathetic to me. Every time he showed up after the initial break, he seemed worse. I figured out fairly quickly what Carla's attitude was about & while I was appalled by her brazenness & borderline cruelty, I still wanted to know what made her tick. I was fairly intrigued by Hamish. Gabriel & Aloysius were only nominally interesting but her served their purpose well. I felt the same way about Lady Morgan. Naomi was interesting but not as deeply rendered as the rest.

The only thing a bit off was that the Americans in Julia's thread, don't speak generally as Americans do. Those instances stood out glaringly to me, not the least being that the instances were so frequent. Using "ring" instead of "call", "jumper" instead of "sweater" or "cardigan"; "primary" school teacher instead of "elementary" school teacher; "laying" a table instead of "setting" a table; a waitress in a diner saying saying "one serve of bacon, eggs..." instead of "one order of..."; a born & raised in L.A. soldier saying "get on" instead of "get along"; "night porter" not "security guard". And even with all of those, they were only distractions because it was still a great read. I'd definitely read another by this author. ( )

Set in two different centuries, this intriguing story questions whether the potential to be a killer can be passed on from one generation to the next. Lavinia, living in the 17th Century, is married to Col. James Huntington. Although she entered the marriage with high hopes, she discovers her husband is keeping a secret that eventually destroys their marriage, and leads Lavinia down a path she never imagined. Centuries later, Lavinia's great granddaughter, Julia, is a genetic scientist working to find the gene enables a person to kill with remorse. While expecting her first child, Julia's life is turned upside down when her husband leaves her for her best friend. What makes a killer nature or nurture? These two stories explore this question, while providing intriguing story lines that are hard to put down. Both stories will keep the reader fascinated as the characters struggle with complicated emotions that range from love to hate. ( )

So this is 'fictional science' more than science fiction. Pretend genetic research in an (overly time-stamped) 2002 that is shadowed by events in the mid-late 1800's does not speculative, nor science fiction make. Not a problem unless that is what one is expecting, I suppose.But like I parenthesised, way too time-stamped. Who are these people and events you are referencing, totally dating and damaging your prose with, m'dear? Oh wait, they are so obvious I cannot miss them. The past bits are better. ( )

I was going to give this only 4.5 stars but then I realised that there was nothing I really disliked it. Compelling, painful in the right way, and very clever. ( )