A routine arrest. A rogue experiment. A mind rewritten.

Detective Rick Dietz never expected a simple bust to spiral into a case of genetic manipulation, psychological transformation—and murder. When his girlfriend, attorney Beth Hamilton, introduces him to Professor Ken Gormund, sparks fly. Gormund isn’t just a rival for Beth’s affections—he’s a brilliant geneticist operating on the edge of legality.

At his Cincinnati research facility, Gormund has perfected a technique to reengineer DNA, turning ordinary pets into flawless specimens. But his ambitions escalate when he abducts a young thief, Nat Jiminson, and uses his own genome as a template to reshape the boy’s mind and body. The results are stunning—until the virus mutates.

Jiminson becomes unstable. Violent. Dangerous. When Gormund decides to eliminate his creation, Jiminson escapes—taking Beth hostage in the process.

Now Dietz must navigate a maze of science, secrets, and betrayal. With Gormund as his uneasy ally, he races to stop a man who possesses the professor’s intellect and a criminal’s cunning. But can they outwit a mind engineered to be perfect?