📖 Blog Tour ~ The Cure by Eve Smith

Living forever can be lethal... 

Ruth is a law-abiding elder, working out her national service, but she has secrets.

Her tireless research into the disease that killed her young daughter had an unexpected the discovery of a vaccine against old age. Just one jab a year wards off age-related diseases, guaranteeing long, healthy life.

But Ruth' s cure was hijacked by her colleague, Erik Grundleger, and his elderly billionaire backer, who hunger for immortality, and SuperJuve – a premium upgrade – was created, driving human lifespan to a new high. The wealthy elite who take it are the Supers, and the population begins to rocket.

Then, a perilous side-effect of SuperJuve emerges, with catastrophic consequences, and as the planet is threatened, the population rebels, and laws are passed to restore life ends at 120. Supers are tracked down by Omnicide investigators like Mara, and executed.

Mara has her own reasons for hunting Supers, and she forms an unlikely alliance with Ruth to find Grundleger.

But Grundleger has been working on something even more radical and is one step ahead, with a deadly surprise in store for both of them...

📖 My Review…

There are endless possibilities of living for a long time, free from the troubles of old age and illness, and with enough energy to live the life you always wanted but with a cut off point in which you can take your leave of family and friends in meaningful way. Doctor Ruth Hammond is a research scientist determined to discover a cure for the aging illness which killed her daughter however, in doing so she inadvertently discovers a vaccine which allows people to live forever.  

Longevity isn’t without its problems and when this vaccine lands in the research laboratories of the worst kind of people a frightening scenario becomes a reality when an upgraded vaccine allows the super rich to live forever, with disastrous consequences. The intricacies of the plot, the imagined existence of an over populated environment, the gloomy places where AI generated green spaces are the only view of a once verdant planet, all help to create a dystopian world which pulsates with energy. Moving forwards and backwards over time we learn more about Ruth’s background, and also about a strong female character called Mara who, in her role as an Omnicide investigator, is determined to track down those flawed individuals who flaunt the rules by cheating death.

This fascinating story takes us deep into a terrifying world of greed, corruption and raw ambition and is so scarily realistic that days after finishing the story I can’t stop thinking about it and fervently hope that this fictional reality doesn’t actually ever come true.

About the Author

Eve Smith writes speculative thrillers, mainly about the things that scare her. Longlisted for the Not the Booker Prize and described by Waterstones as ‘an exciting new voice in crime fiction’, Eve’s debut novel, The Waiting Rooms, set in the aftermath of an antibiotic resistance crisis, was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize First Novel Award and was a Book of the Month in the Guardian, who compared her writing to Michael Crichton’s. It was followed by Off-Target, about a world where genetic engineering of children is routine, and ONE, about survival in a world ravaged by climate change. Eve’s previous job at an environmental charity took her to research projects across Asia, Africa and the Americas, and she has an ongoing passion for wild creatures, wild science and far-flung places. She lives in Oxfordshire with her family.

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