If Only He Never by T.C. Correy

Title: If Only He Never

Author: T.C. Correy

Genre: Crime

Publisher: Champagne Book Group

Published: 22^nd May 2022

Format: Paperback

Pages: 302

Price: $48.99

Synopsis: 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.

~*~

If Only He Never kicks off with two characters – Curtis and Laura – meeting in the lobby of their apartment building in San Diego. Then they find the dead body, and Curtis is angry. Angry because he feels that Laura has turned him into a murder suspect as they rush to find a doctor linked to Laura. She assures Curtis that Gordon can help them, and that he has the answers they’re seeking.

But Curtis is on the run from a group of scientists who value him more if he is dead, and in what felt like a near-future story, once the San Diego police are after him, particularly Detectives Sutton and Mendez. Up until now, Curtis has been hoping for a quiet life, a new life where nobody is after him and where he can run away from being ‘the conman of the year’. These hopes are dashed when he has to go on the run with Laura. Why? Because apparently, as she tells him, his blood carries the secret to an important vaccine for fatal diseases. There are other secrets linked to a top-secret operation that has taken place six years prior to the story, and that is supposedly still going on. Laura is determined to uncover the truth – but her motives are questionable, and it sometimes felt like she was trying to direct Curtis towards the nefarious people. So – what makes him team up with Laura in this cat-and-mouse game with hints of a science thriller? He has a desire to know the truth, and in crime novels, it is often the search for the truth that drives the characters.

This is a layered and complex novel as Curtis and Laura are running from the police and the pharmaceutical giant, who think Curtis’s blood holds the key to a super vaccine. And yet, there is much more to the story than meets the eye. Why are these two so special and important beyond the magic blood? What does the pharmaceutical giant think they can offer? And what do the government not want Curtis and Laura to know? As I read, these questions kept coming up, especially as new information was revealed that at times felt a little bit out there. Thankfully, most things were explained. There were one aspect that I felt needed a bit more explanation, and it seemed to come out of nowhere. I think it fitted the story, but at the same time, it was the one thing that stood out to me that I don’t think was as effectively explored or explained as other elements.

When I first started reading this story, I was prepared for a murder mystery, perhaps coupled with an identity theft subplot, because at first, that was where it felt like it was going. I liked this, and it worked well, but it took an interesting turn when the science thriller aspect came into the story. It became a significant element of the story, navigating the role of DNA and genetic engineering in science and crime.

I found this to be an intriguing and engaging read that almost tipped over into science fiction. It is a book that interrogates the desire humans have to control life and death, and the lengths people and organisations will go to for this. It’s unexplained plot aspects perhaps hint at the reality that we don’t always get to wrap a mystery up tidily, because life is messy. It suggests that maybe we need to be satisfied with not having all the answers, even if there are questions that need answers. I think this book will find its readers, and was one that I found engaging whilst I was reading it.