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GMOs gone wrong. Bees run amok. Can Doyle Carrick save the day?

For my recent beach vacation, I decided that, for once, I was going to read for pure fun and pleasure. I was NOT going to merely slog through the stack of New Yorkers that piles up, causing angst and guilt.

Okay, I read the New Yorkers as well. But, boy, were the two Jon McGoran novels I read a delight! Albeit a scary one. These timely eco-thrillers were all about science gone horribly wrong.

So it's a good thing an intrepid Philly detective, Doyle Carrick, is on the case. An utterly engaging character, he's charming to those he cares about and becomes an in-your-face wiseacre around those he doesn't.

The guy gets shot at, beat up and exposed to horrible chemicals. He falls down a cliff and ... wait, did he just get stung by some kind of super-bee? And still, he keeps on going.

Partly, it's because he's worried about the lovely organic farmer, Nola Watkins, who has challenges of her own: She has developed an extreme sensitivity to many chemicals.

In the first book of the series, Drift, Carrick goes to rural Pennsylvania to settle affairs after his stepfather's death, following close on the heels of his mother's. Finding some apparent meth labs that have been burned down, he starts to investigate — never mind that he's on suspension from the force back in Philly.

But then people start getting sick. And what's up with the apples?

It's a worst-case-scenario for genetically engineered crops that leaves you thinking, "could something like this actually happen?" Clearly, McGoran, a former editor at Grid magazine, thinks it close enough to possibility to riff on on it.

As he told Grid editor Alex Mulcahy in a recent interview, "These are not just paranoid fantasies; this is science. So, while some of the stuff in the books has not been done yet, it's definitely possible. It's just a matter of someone applying the resources and finding the motive to do it."

For the next installment, Dead Out, McGoran adds bees into the mix, so we get a two-fer: genetic engineering AND something like colony collapse disorder. And, once again, evil corporate types who will stop at nothing to make a buck. If their plan succeeds, the world bee biome will never be the same.

This time, the action takes place on Martha's Vineyard. Nola has decided she needs some distance, but Doyle winds up there along with her. Good thing, too. People keep dying. Could it have something to do with the bees?

This is all highly suspenseful, satisfyingly thought-provoking, and, oddly enough, sometimes even deliciously funny.

Can't wait to find out what Doyle's up to in No. 3!