by T.C. Correy
Publisher: Champagne Book Group, 2022
Publisher’s Blurb:
Labelled “conman of the year” by the media, Curtis hasn’t got much left, besides his life. Then he learns that to a scientist he’s worth billions – dead.
When Curtis’s hopes for a brighter future with his beguiling new neighbour Laura are dashed by her betrayal turning him into a murder suspect, he’s positive things can’t get worse—until he escapes from a rain of bullets. The reason, so Laura tells him: he carries the solution scientists will kill for in his blood—the ultimate vaccine to prevent cancer and other fatal diseases.
Reluctantly, he teams up with Laura, but when he digs up his past and discovers a disturbing truth, the reason the government-linked pharmaceutical giant wants him dead rather than use his blood to save millions of people, the web of lies and deceit grows denser.
To have a life and a future, Curtis has to have blood on his hands, though to get to the scientist, he has to trust the enigmatic Laura, but as they grow closer, her secrets could prove deadlier than the conspiracy he unravels.
Review
by Ashleigh Meikle
If Only He Never by T.C. Correy is a science thriller with undertones of crime, set in what felt like a near future. Curtis has to go on the run when he learns there’s a group of scientists after him, and that he’s worth more to them dead than alive. With his hopes for a future dashed, he’s thrust into a strange cat and mouse game with his neighbour, Laura. But as a murder suspect, he’s on the run with her as she tells him his blood carries the secret to an important vaccine for fatal diseases.
Once he reluctantly teams up with her, secrets are revealed; secrets about a world of science and its possible links to a top-secret operation that took place six years previously. Then things become even more complicated – not only are the police after Curtis, but there is a government-linked pharmaceutical giant who is after him and Laura. The question is why. Why these two? What do they have to offer, and what have they done? These questions kept popping up as I was reading, because with each new event, there seemed to be more intrigue for the both readers and the characters. This moved the story along well for me, and ensured that the narrative was effective. It kept me asking “what happens next”.
At first, the story felt like it was going to be a murder mystery coupled with identity theft, because there was a hint that Laura and Curtis weren’t who they said they were. I felt this was working well, and the science thriller aspect added to the depth of the story when it was introduced. I think this was a significant element – and it touches on contemporary issues. Discussions about blood, tests, vaccines, and other elements that navigate the ethics about medical experimentation and genetic engineering felt authentic. This was unsettling – perhaps because this could become a reality, if it isn’t already, and we need to find a way to navigate it.
Overall, I found this an intriguing and engaging read, and think it suited the genre of thriller, and could have tipped over into science fiction at times. It’s a book that examines the human desire to control life and death, and how people find ways to work towards what sounds like an honourable thing, but getting there is touched with crime. Did we find the answers in If Only He Never? No spoilers, but it raised some important ethical questions about the madness of needing to know everything and the lengths science will go to in pursuit of its unquenchable thirst. Thought-provoking read.