I discovered this book through a review in the Oregonian--who knew! The setting is a cancer research laboratory called the Philpott Institute housed within Harvard University. The lab is full of wonderfully described characters whose true motives are revealed slowly as the plot thickens. The two directors of the Institute are opposites in many ways: Sandy Glass (Jewish man who changed his name so as not to be too ethnic) is a charismatic oncologist whose primary role is to fundraise, and Marion Mendelssohn, an intelligent scientist who demands much of herself and the post-docs in the lab. At the beginning of the book one post-doc, Cliff, begins to have some success with an experiment he'd been working for a couple of years. Most in the lab become excited, but one post-doc, a woman named Robin who had been in a relationship with Cliff, is suspicious. One of my favorites parts of the book is at the beginning. The author describes a secondary character, Jacob Mendelssohn, Marion's husband, who had been a child prodigy and was expected to win a nobel prize. The description of his rise to "genius fame" up until he's 17 and has a self-aware epiphany of his own is genius itself. I highly recommend this book, even if you don't have a working knowledge of scientific research (that would include me).
