Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sarah Collier has started to show the same tell-tale signs of Alzheimer’s disease as her father: memory loss, even blackouts. So she is reluctant to accept the invitation to be the guest of honour at a prestigious biotech conference – until her husband Daniel, a neuroscientist, persuades her that the publicity storm will be worth it. The technology being unveiled at this conference could revolutionise medicine forever. More than that, it could save Sarah’s life.
Richard Armitage is a multi-award winning stage, screen and voice actor best known for his roles in Peter Jackson’s trilogy of The Hobbit, Captain America, Alice through the Looking Glass and Oceans 8. Geneva is his first novel.
In Geneva, the couple are feted as stars – at least, Sarah is. But behind the five-star luxury, investors are circling, controversial blogger Terri Landau is all over the story, and Sarah’s symptoms are getting worse. As events begin to spiral out of control, Sarah can’t be sure who to trust – including herself.
An Alzheimer's disease diagnosis is a frightening prospect for anybody but for Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sarah Collier, it is cruelly tragic and comes at an especially intense period when she most needs to be able function effectively, knowing who she can trust. Richard Armitage's cracking debut thriller introduces a fascinating protagonist in Sarah and Geneva is a chilling read on a number of levels.
The riveting prologue features a dramatic chase scene as a woman runs for her life in the snowy Swiss Alps. It's immediately obvious that Richard Armitage is adept at creating an immersively cinematic sense of place and as well as being a nail-biting start, this exhilarating opening to Geneva is beautifully evocative. The narrative is shared between the respective first-person perspectives of Sarah and her husband, Daniel but there are also posts written by blogger Terri Landau and third person chapters which are both revelatory and mysterious. Each separate voice is clearly defined within the compulsive, pacy plot which is as serpentine as a mountain pass.
Sarah's story is told with real empathy and the scenes with her father, who she has watched become increasingly diminished by Alzheimer's are desperately moving. She eventually agrees to accompany Daniel to the Schiller Institute in Geneva for an important biotech conference. It has already been established that she doesn't fete publicity and as it becomes evident that her presence is going to grab the headlines, her downward spiral becomes terrifyingly unstoppable. The juxtaposition between her rational moments and her lowest, most confused points is heartbreaking and Richard Armitage captures the nightmarish confusion she is experiencing superbly.
Her relationship with Daniel appears warm but is not without intrigue; the uncertainty of what lies ahead weighs heavily on them both – although a scientist himself, he has always been in Sarah's shadow and his bitterness is almost palpable at times. Meanwhile, Terri's The Landau Report blog posts are pitch-perfect as she excitedly suggests conspiracies and cover-ups to her followers. However, she also describes herself as a Sarah Collier superfan and after the explosive announcement regarding the revolutionary and controversial new treatment, Neurocell the pair are due to meet...
As Sarah finds herself in mortal danger, the secretive antics of the Schilling Institute's public relations advisor, Helen Alder and its Russian IT expert, Pavel Osinov are particularly interesting. What follows is a gripping, shocking thriller which cleverly examines some of the more shady practices of highly competitive medical research without veering into tin-hat territory. Geneva might be about a high-tech medical advancement but even at its most explosive, the motivations behind the actions of the main characters are plausible. Geneva is an impressively assured start to Richard Armitage's literary career; intelligent, atmospheric and compelling from beginning to end, I look forward to more.
Geneva is published by Faber & Faber. It can be purchased from the publisher's website and from Hive, Waterstones, Amazon or your favourite independent bookseller.
About the Author
Comments
Post a Comment