Josh is bewildered when his older brother, Max, is arrested for the murder of a beautiful young woman. This is the Max who fixed his bike and plays online games like Genesis Alpha with him. This is also the older brother whose life he saved from cancer after they harvested Josh's stem cells immediately after his birth. Surely Max did not kill Karen Crosse. If he did, though, Josh wonders if he is to blame. If he had not been born, wouldn't Karen still be alive? The many scenes of teens playing Genesis Alpha will suggest this for gaming bibliographies, but the game is only a vehicle to frame the larger debates. Cybersafety is a theme; it's gradually revealed that the murderer developed a relationship with Karen through Genesis Alpha, carefully aggregating snippets of information about the pretty teen until he knew exactly who and where she was. Yet the deeper, more philosophical questions of free will, good and evil, and the ethics of reproductive science are at the core of this fascinating, troubling thriller. Frances Bradburn
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