The Goldilocks Genome

A Medical Thriller

By: Elizabeth Reed Aden

Narrated by: Amanda Carlin

When San Francisco–based FDA epidemiologist Dr. Carrie Hediger uncovers a rash of unexplained deaths while investigating the suspiciously convenient death of her best friend, she becomes determined to find answers—even if it leads her to a murderer, and even if confronting authority, using her wiles, and bending the rules to get justice risks her future in the FDA. To unravel the puzzle, Carrie assembles a team: some talented post-doctoral fellows, a quirky pharmacologist, an unctuous chemist, and a skeptical FBI agent that she can’t help her attraction for.

Together, they follow the data through the twists and turns, eventually uncovering that the Goldilocks effect in prescription drugs—the premise that people are inclined to seek “just the right amount” of something—is central to understanding these mysterious deaths. Through the twists and turns, Carrie and her team enter a race to uncover the truth . . . and catch a killer. Grounded in real data analysis techniques, real science and pharmacology, and actual current psychiatric practices, The Goldilocks Genome is simultaneously a taut, race-against-time thriller and a condemnation of the psychiatric industry’s failure to implement genetic-based “personalized medicine”—a problem that persists to this day.

©2024 Elizabeth Reed Aden, PhD (P)2024 Mewuk LLC

The next Hollywood blockbuster

What a ride! This is a taut medical thriller involving the FDA, the FBI, bioterrorism, and detailed pharmacology. Reading this took me back to medical school classes in pharmacology, with updated data relevant to now. The description of the epidemiology is extraordinary, very detailed and precise. The story slowly builds, to a thrilling cat and mouse chase at the end. This is a thinking person's novel, fun to try and guess what will be around the next bend. The thrill at the end is akin to reading The Firm years ago, the kind of book you stay up reading until dawn as the end nears. A great read for anyone in the medical field or those who love medical thrillers.