Detective Carson “Mac” MacHenry can’t figure out why the Darmes are so interested in this one dead girl or why the secretive federal police have rushed the autopsy or why, a few days later, the records of the dead girl's murder have been erased from all official government channels.
Even stranger to the detective is the manner of death – injuries consistent with a violent beating and sexual assault. Crimes rarely seen in current society. Crimes eradicated decades earlier.
The Bathwater Conspiracy follows Mac and her partner Nguyen as they wander a dystopian post-apocalyptic cityscape in search of clues to Alfreda Longwell's murder. Their off-the-books investigation leads them from the halls of Alfreda's university to the Decayed Area, a blasted wasteland at the city’s edge where technophobic religious fundamentalists struggle with scavengers and lunatics in a never-ending fight for survival.
When the pair discovers a secret government project gone horribly wrong, they must work to uncover the details of a plot which will rock the already fragile political landscape of the city to its core…
Janet Kellough’s latest novel offers a tightly-plotted mystery and a fascinating glimpse at genetic engineering run amok in a near-future world. Touching on issues of bioethics, gender, religion, and more, The Bathwater Conspiracy will appeal to fans of science fiction, post-apocalyptic fiction, and police procedurals alike.