Geneva by Richard Armitage began as a potential industrial espionage / medical ethics novel but became a cheating husband and his mistress thwarted by the clever protagonist with the unlikely help of an FSB agent – quite the plot twister.

Sarah Collier is a retired Nobel scientist and the wife of Alzheimer’s researcher, Daniel, and daughter of an Alzheimer’s patient, is invited to endorse a potentially life-changing piece of medical technology, the Neurocell, developed by Switzerland-based laboratory owned by Mauritz Schiller. In the weeks before the visit to Geneva, Collier suffers from the early stage symptoms of Alzheimer’s and a scan confirms her and Daniel’s worst fears. They travel to Geneva where Sarah is to confirm her highly-coveted endorsement for the Neurocell technology and so make the technology attractive to Schiller’s potential investors. The presentation is managed by the ultra-efficient Helen Alder, supported by the exiled Russian head of security, Pavel Osinov.

The story is interspersed with occasional posts from the medical ethics blogger Terri Landau, who foretells possibilities, good and bad, of the new medical technology that the Schiller Institute is on the verge of creating.

The story is told occasionally from Sarah’s and Daniel’s perspectives. Sarah tells of her anxieties associated with Alzheimer’s and with endorsing new and potentially dangerous medical technology. Daniel tells of the difficulties of being a husband of an Alzheimer’s patient and the profound changes to his and his family’s life. Other chapters and written in the third-person, recounting the plot of Helen Alder, Maurice Schiller and Pavel Osinov in their preparations for the presentation that is vital to the Schiller Institute’s financial survival. In these chapters we learn that Helen may not be as reliable and honest as Maurice thinks she is, and Pavel may in fact be working for another master. And to avoid blowing the suspense of the plot, I’ll stop there.

The characters are well-constructed and the relationship between Daniela and Sarah especially is crafted carefully. The suspicions relating to Helen and Pavel are very carefully and slowly revealed so that the reader is kept guessing for some time.

The plot’s pace is consistent and kept my attention throughout. As with all good suspense/thrillers the last few chapters are fast read of tense action and insightful dialogue.

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