The Truth Teller by Angela Hunt

Lara Godfrey's beloved husband died unexpectedly from a horrible bone cancer not long after they were married.  They had very much wanted children so they took steps when he became ill to make sure that that could happen in case all the cancer treatments interfered with their ability to conceive.  But now Michael is dead and Lara, after thinking long and hard and praying about it decides to go ahead with the procedure that would allow her to get pregnant by Michael's child.  She wants nothing more than to have his baby and have a part of him still with her.  And as it turns out Lara works as a physician assistant at a woman's clinic and the husband of the doctor she works for and is friends with is a genetic scientist.  So Lara asks him to check if Michael's cancer genes would be passed on to any offspring.  Assuring her that he eradicated those genes, the doctor goes ahead with the procedure and Lara finds herself pregnant.  When a local celebrity millionaire in her area, a proclaimed bachelor, announces that he is expecting his first child through a surrogate, he is the talk of the coffee room at Lara's clinic.  But when he starts showing up at the clinic, some start to get a little suspicious and suspect Lara to be that surrogate.  When Lara starts to notice some odd discrepancies in her files, she starts to dig further and makes discoveries that put her and her unborn baby's life in danger.  As she deals with the fact she has been deceived by someone she trusted but she is being used as the surrogate for some experimental child that has consequences not only for her and the baby but possibly for the human race.  At first repulsed, now Lara will do anything to protect the child from the evil that waits to befall him.  Living in hiding, and growing and flourishing under his loving mother's fierce protection, the boy starts to show an unusual gift of sensing when other's are not telling the truth.  Now they are again on the run from those who would silence that gift.

This book was very unique.  It was edge of your seat, fascinating, thought provoking and suspenseful.  It explores very important issues of genetic manipulation, medical ethics and morals and their clash with science and research, the love of a mother, the value of life and children no matter their parentage and how far a mother would go to protect her children.  The book was first published in 1999 and it's messages are still important today, in fact, so much so that the publisher reintroduced in 2006.  What I loved about this story was that though it was based in scientific stuff it never bogged down, and kept it's pace from beginning to end.  It made me more aware about topics I never thought too much about before but it sure got me thinking now.  And of course, with Angela Hunt you get lots of twists and turns keeping you up way past one's bedtime to see what happens.  There is some good discussion questions for reading groups in the back.

I rated this 9.5/10