Fractal: A Jick Arnsson Thriller - Paperback

by Arun Rajagopal (Author)

Two years after her husband's murder, Samantha "Sam" Arnsson attempts to begin a new chapter of her life with her son and Quincy "Quin" Duncan, a new love interest. A data analyst for a government security agencies, she asks her brother-in-law, Jick Arnsson (erstwhile physician and current amateur sleuth), for help with a missing person case in Hawaii. A Honolulu-based investigator named Alicia Kehaulani Rogers disappeared eight months earlier on the Big Island of Hawaii while investigating a wealthy businessman, George Sturgis, who may be involved in human cloning. Sam believes Alicia probably died from an accident and assumes that sending Jick to Hawaii for one last look will be an easy assignment.
But following Alicia's trail leads Jick into discovering minor and contradictory clues that seem to point to something deeper. Sturgis suffered a traumatic brain injury while scuba diving and hasn't been the same since then. Jick finds it inconceivable that Sturgis could be involved in cloning but also discovers that Sturgis may have been involved in a plan to have a child through a surrogate decades ago in Greece. Alicia was last seen near a hundred-acre parcel of land owned by Sturgis, a remote stretch of forest that Sturgis' reclusive adult son calls his "playground." Before Jick realizes, he's entangled in a grand-scale conspiracy that spans decades and involves numerous murders and more than one psychopath.

"Virtually unputdownable, a stay-up-all-night-until-your-eyes-blur kind of read." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)