What could the Shroud of Turin, a conservative senator and an entrepreneurial researcher have in common? Politics, religion and bioscience collide in the latest medical thriller from the master story-teller in this field.

Senator Ashley Butler is a quintessential Southern demagogue whose support of traditional American values includes a knee-jerk reaction against virtually all biotechnologies. When he's called to chair a sub-committee introducing legislation to ban new cloning technology, the senator views his political future in bold relief; and Dr Daniel Lowell, inventor of the technique that will take stem cell research to the next level, sees a roadblock positioned before his biotech start-up.

These two seemingly opposite personalities clash during the senate hearings, yet the men have a common desire. Butler's hunger for political power far outstrip his concern for the unborn; and Lowell's pursuit of gargantuan personal wealth and celebrity overrides any considerations for patient's well-being. Further complicating the proceedings is the confidential news that Senator Butler has developed Parkinson's disease - leading the senator and the researcher into a Faustian pact. In a perilous attempt to prematurely harness Lowell's new technology, the therapy leaves the senator with the horrifying effects of temporal love epilepsy - seizures of the most bizarre order.

Taken straight from tomorrow's headlines, Seizure is a cautionary tale for a time when biochemical discovery is pulling us into a promising yet frightening new world.