Word: patterson
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...chilling new legal thriller from Richard North Patterson...
Richie Arias is a societal malignancy, a weak, charming, tirelessly manipulative man who inspires thoughts of therapeutic homicide in almost everyone who knows him. We met him a couple of years ago in Richard North Patterson's crisp courtroom drama, Degree of Guilt. There he was a minor character, the shiftless, sponging husband of the heroine, attorney Terri Peralta. Since then Richie has metastasized, and in Patterson's new legal thriller, Eyes of a Child (Knopf; 590 pages; $25), his rottenness drives the action. His psychology is that of an exceedingly clever stalker, and after Terri moves out with their...
...Senator. But the author's characterizations are tough and believable, and his sentences, which tended to wander through purple patches in his first novels, now are spare and efficient. A similar spareness in plotting might have helped matters. What's clear is that after half a dozen books, Patterson is one of the best in the business...
That is starting to change. One new tool that should prove helpful is a computerized genetic-disease data base developed at Patterson's lab that lists more than 300 genetic problems plaguing dogs. Another is the university's PennHIP program, a hip-disease-detection system that took 11 years and $1 million to develop. It involves taking detailed measurements of hip X rays to grade the severity of dysplasia. The program is being marketed by International Canine Genetics Inc., a research company based in Malverne, Pa., which is already training vets to use it. "A tighter-fitting hip joint...
Lists and detection systems are not the same as cures, but Patterson points out that veterinary researchers are finally beginning to have some insight into the causes of these disorders. "Canine genetic diseases," he says, "are now being defined at the molecular level, and the mapping of the canine genome is at last under way." Scientists have located the genes that cause muscular dystrophy in golden retrievers, and "shaking pup" syndrome in Welsh springer spaniels. They're working on identifying the genes responsible for failure-to-thrive metabolic problems in giant Schnauzers, bleeding disorders in Scottish terriers and Doberman pinschers...