Gene Pool

Night comes to Whitton Falls and within the university town an insidious element is at work. Cate Somers, paleontologist and researcher, gradually becomes aware that there is a hidden presence, alien and cold and impossible to stop. Whoever or whatever is attacking local residents has an agenda that is accelerating.

Cate is called on to help in the investigation, along with the sheriff's nephew, Wyatt, a homicide detective from New York. But everything she assumes about what is going on is altered when her biologist friend Emma analyzes metal objects found at the killing sites. The series of murders has left a trail of evidence that has its origins in a peculiar chemistry. Each one contains the attributes of anaerobic bacteria, the sort that NASA and ExoMars would expect to show up on other planets.

The rules of what is "real" no longer apply.