The Genesis Code (1997)


Covers: U.K.,  U.S.
"The Genesis Code is impeccable in plot, immaculate in story resolution, and moves with high skill from locale to locale and from suspense to suspense.  What a very good, virtuoso read."  Norman Mailer
"A superb suspense novel that takes us on a whirlwind chase to an astounding finish.  I felt propelled by the incredible pacing, the lure of the scientific secret at its core, and Case's sheer storytelling power.  The pages of this terrific thriller practically turn themselves." John Saul
"The Genesis Code is the most exciting book I've read in years."  Tony Hillerman
"The Genesis Code rattles to the bone...I woke up at three in the morning wondering:  What if...?"  Stanley Pottinger
"A taut thriller...razor-sharp dialogue, byzantine story twists and harrowing encounters."  Chicago Tribune
"Spellbinding...Terrifying."  San Francisco Examiner
  • New York Times Bestseller
  • USA Today Bestseller
  • International Bestseller

Mysterious assassinations.  Cutting-edge medical technology.  A secret organization with an unholy agenda.  John Case has combined these intriguing elements into an explosive novel that will keep you up all night.

Joe Lassiter awakens to the ring of the phone in the dead of the night.  His sister Kathy and her young son Brandon have died in a blaze in their expensive home near Washington, D.C.  Rushing to the scene, Lassiter learns the deaths were no accident:  his sister and nephew were brutally murdered in their beds before the fire was set.  The police are baffled. The man who set the fire clings to life in the burn ward, unable to answer any questions.

Lassiter heads a thriving high-tech investigative agency in the nation’s capital.  If there’s a paper trail, he can follow it.  A computer encryption, he can crack it.  An identity to reveal, he will track it down.  He throws all his energy into the investigation of Kathy and Brandon’s murders. He begins with the man languishing in the burn ward, a man who exploded, on fire, through Kathy Lassiter’s front bay window.  But as Lassiter traces that man’s identity, the mystery only deepens. His name is Franco Grimaldi and he’s a known hit-man, with disturbing connections to Italian military intelligence and to the fanatical Catholic order Umbra Domini.  The question is:  Why would he even be in the same orbit with Kathy Lassiter---a researcher for NPR, a Sunday school teacher, a single mother with no known enemies?  And then the man with the answers to Lassiter’s questions escapes from the hospital, killing a policeman in the process.

Lassiter’s leads take him on a dangerous international chase from London to Rome to Naples to Umbria to Switzerland to Maine. The more he unearths, the larger the web of conspiracy grows, yet every thread he pulls seems to tighten the knot of deception. 

The Genesis Code is the story of a secret, a secret so powerful that if it becomes known, it will alter the course of civilization. When Joe Lassiter finally learns the truth, it will shock him --- and the reader --- to his very marrow.

Relevant Links
Archivum Secretum Apostolicum Vaticanum, the Secret Archives of the Vatican:
 
http://asv.vatican.va/home_en.htm

The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/pope/benedict/benedict1.shtml

Opus Dei.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_Dei

Send in the clones!

Link to M. I. T. Research: http://www.wi.mit.edu/news/archives/2004/rj_0215.html

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Feb. 15, 2004) — Many scientists believe that the further a cell is from the embryonic stem cell stage, the harder it is to make a successful clone using that cell’s genetic material. Now, researchers at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research have cloned mice using olfactory neurons—cells far removed from the embryonic state. What’s more, the mice have a full range of smell, offering new information about central nervous system development.

Kittens Tabouli and Baba Ganoush were both cloned from the same Bengal cat, according to Genetic Savings and Clone. They are said to be the first cats produced using a new technique known as chromatin transfer. MSNBC story here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5612603/







Relics


Relics play an important role in The Genesis Code.  One of the characters in the book, Dr. Ignazio Baresi tests relics for the Vatican; he also writes a book on the subject:  Relic, Totem, and Divinity. 

Coming from the Judaic tradition, early Christians shunned any depiction of Jesus or the apostles.  The notion of revering a relic, a physical object, would have been anathema.  But as the Christianity spread to Rome, matters changed.  By the second century, the signs of the fish and the anchor were well established as secret “tags” of still-persecuted Christians.  When Constantine embraced Christianity as the empire’s religion, images of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and other figures began to emerge. In the early days, Christ was usually shown as a “solar youth,” a radiant boy embedded in rays of sunshine.  By the eighth century, he was depicted as a man, haloed in majestic robes. He was the “Pantocrater,” the lord who had come to lead the people to salvation.

And then something changed.  A stroll through a good museum or a look through an art history book demonstrates the changed sensibility that began affect images of Jesus.   His suffering became the dominant theme, the solar youth replaced by the bleeding and tortured figure on the cross.

The emphasis on suffering and pain continued for many centuries.  Within the Catholic church, flagellation and mortification became popular forms of devotion.  Hope and happiness were to be achieved in the next life, not in this “veil of tears.” 

And hand in hand with the worship of martyrs and the transformation of suffering into a form of piety, the relic craze really took hold. Churches with important relics reaped the rewards, becoming places of pilgrimage. Catholic theologians differed as to whether it was “mere superstition” to imbue power to physical objects, but there was no denying the public’s hunger for relics.  There was a time in the middle ages when relics were so valuable and sought after that relic mongers stalked the monasteries and homes of holy men known to be feeling ill.  It was even rumored that some ailing saints were hurried to salvation by impatient relic-traders.

http://www.catholic.com/library/Relics.asp

http://www.livingmiracles.net.Relics.html#top

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relic

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/relc/hd_relc.htm

To hear a broadcast about relics:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/ark/stories/2006/1709468.htm

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