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The Genesis Flaw

3.42 of 5 stars 3.42 · rating details · 19 ratings · 5 reviews

Human experiments in Zimbabwe. An Australian farmer's death. A Sydney CEO's suicide. These events are linked in the mind of one woman, Serena Swift, a ballsy advertising director with a guilty conscience, when she decides to take on one of the world's most powerful producers of genetically modified food, Gene-Asis. Serena disguises herself to infiltrate Gene-Asis in an att...more

Paperback, 362 pages

Published June 1st 2012 by Murdoch Books (first published September 6th 2010)

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Dec 23, 2011 Laura Rittenhouse rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: thriller

I need to disclose that I'm not a huge fan of the thriller genre. But I was at the Sydney Writers Festival and I heard Ms Larkin speaking and the storyline interested me: genetically modified foods going scarily wrong. Well this book does deliver that. A huge multinational with tentacles in every government and media outlet develops a strain of genetically modified foods that have truly unhealthy side effects. The hero of the tale, Serena Swift stumbles over some unpleasant truths and suspicions...more

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May 11, 2013 Cameron rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ad Exec Serena Swift develops some real fears regarding the activities of global bio-tech company Gene-Asis after the death of her father from a mysterious illness. After deciding that the company's secrets must be exposed, she discovers just what lengths CEO Al Bukowski will go to in order to protect them, and a very dangerous cat and mouse game ensues.

The Genesis Flaw is thoroughly plotted and written with a solid feel for pace and tension. The action keeps coming: car chases, botched executi...more

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Jul 02, 2011 Deb rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: green-themes, aussie-authors

Just imagine what could happen if we continue to allow the huge bio tech corporations free rein to sell their wares and genetically modified organisms contaminate our food supply. One day it may become difficult to find food that does not contain a genetic modification. One day we may find that it is too late, that there is no way back to truly natural food and that GMOs have fatal side effects on the human body and the DNA we pass to our children.

With apparently 70% of processed food in the US...more

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Nov 06, 2011 Tyson Adams rated it 4 of 5 stars

I got a lot of mileage out of the Sydney Writers' Festival this year. Saw a lot of great authors and presentations, picked up some fantastic books and had a good time. I'd like to see my local Perth Writers' Festival get the same sponsorship so they could put on a big event too. I'm looking at you Dymocks!

Anyway, I saw LA Larkin talk about her writing and the book The Genesis Flaw and managed to miss out on picking up a copy. I blame the scheduling and Sydney baristas for not knowing how to make...more

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Jan 09, 2011 Karen rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: australian, crime, review-books

Big conspiracies, cyber-threats and nefarious company goings on aren't my favourite thriller material, so I was more than a little worried about my reactions to THE GENESIS FLAW. This is a first book from Australian author L.A. Larkin (who, from her blurb, works for one of Australia's leading climate change consultancies). The author's background, and the sorts of research listed that went into the book did make it something I thought might be worth having a look at despite my personal preferenc...more Big conspiracies, cyber-threats and nefarious company goings on aren't my favourite thriller material, so I was more than a little worried about my reactions to THE GENESIS FLAW. This is a first book from Australian author L.A. Larkin (who, from her blurb, works for one of Australia's leading climate change consultancies). The author's background, and the sorts of research listed that went into the book did make it something I thought might be worth having a look at despite my personal preferences.

There's an interesting combination of settings in THE GENESIS FLAW. The reader is taken from the cut-throat world of advertising and public relations, to dry land farming in Australia, the world of computer hacking and human experiments in Zimbabwe. At a break-neck pace. Serena Swift feels guilty that she wasn't there when her farming father dies. She also feels very guilty because she's always suspected that the cause of his death were the genetically modified crops that he'd planted. She came back to Australia to reconnect with her father, too late to her regret. So she does what she knows she should do - and sets out to prove that the company behind the genetically modified seeds knows all too well what they have unleashed on the world.

A lot of the credibility for the threat in this book has to come from a sense of a personal threat to Serena, and her supporters, as they attempt to bring down an evil corporate empire. There's also the bigger threat to mankind as a result of a feral genetic product being released. So part of the requirement is that a reader must identify with Serena and feel very much "on her side" so to speak. This was, to be honest, a bit tricky at points through out the book, as there was something every so slightly off-putting about our heroine. Obviously some of that reaction is on purpose - Serena misses her father's death because she opts to go for a job interview - something she beats herself up for later on sure, but for some reason it didn't quite engender the empathy or sympathy that you'd possibly want in a central character. Mind you, an unsympathetic, unlikeable central character can also work - firing the reader up against that person, but in this case neither reaction quite seemed to surface. Serena remained a little lacklustre for my liking. Perhaps there was a little too much doing something unnecessary and then beating herself up afterwards? Perhaps it was one too many fem-jep situations for my liking.

The other problem is that a threat from a faceless / voiceless big corporate entity again can work - it can actually be quite creepy. But this entity seemed a little unfocused. Gene-Asis was there, but it morphed into a lurking corporate front-man and a hired killer and lost immediacy and some anonymity - which would have been a lot more sobering. There was also a lack of identification with the "victim". Serena's father was a tragic death, but it seemed somehow too localised to support the global threat of potentially mutant genetics. As horrible as it sounds, once evidence of the human experiments in Zimbabwe surfaced, and the victim's became very human, the threat became more believable and immediate; the tension and pressure increased, and a real feeling of menace came into the story.

To be fair though, I still don't like these sorts of storylines, and allowances need to be made for that. THE GENESIS FLAW is a pretty good first thriller, with a central female character that will appeal to many many readers. There's a little romance, a lot of action, a threat for those who are more comfortable with this sort of storyline, some sinister big-company goings on and a one woman against the conspiracy scenario that could absolutely deliver for fans of this sort of book.
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Dec 31, 2012 Sally rated it 4 of 5 stars

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Shelves: bio-thriller

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Shelves: e-book, thriller

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