Review: Killer Chromosomes by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir

Destroyer 32 Killer Chromosomes by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir

After several weak books, The Destroyer finds its magic again with a straight-up science fiction adventure story. Scientist Sheila Feinberg recklessly combines several experimental DNA solutions in an attempt to prove how safe they are and turns herself into a sort of weretiger driven with a need to hunt and kill humans. Remo is sent out to find the beast and makes a critical mistake which leads to Feinberg almost killing him. He’s still good enough that he drives Feinberg off, but the shock to his system knocks him out of his Sinanju training (something Chiun describes as an amnesia of the body rather than the mind) and he begins sinking back into his ordinary human state—smoking cigarettes, eating meat, and plunging into a terrible depression.

 

Feinberg, meanwhile, is so impressed by Remo’s physical skills that she becomes obsessed with capturing him as a stud for a future race of tiger creatures. It’s not completely clear why she feels the need to do this, because she also begins forcing regular humans to imbibe her tiger formula turning them into werebeasts like her—creatures that begin hunting Remo.

 

Smith also makes several mistakes here and President Carter actually tries (and fails) to shut CURE down because Remo isn’t reporting in anymore. In setting a trap for the tiger people, Smith unknowingly puts everything on the line as CURE faces off against its most serious threat yet.