The Bathwater Conspiracy by Janet Kellough

[Jax14]

The Bathwater Conspiracy is a standalone novel, set in a post-apocalyptic world of sorts where men have been eradicated after the Testosterone Wars and women are the only sex that remains.

A young lady has been murdered and the body mutilated in ways that have not been seen for years. Detective Carson MacHenry jumps straight onto the case and is determined to find out what happened, but has been warned off by the Darmes, a branch of law enforcement that is way above Carson’s pay grade. This in itself is peculiar as why would they not want a horrific murder like this solved? Carson gets lumped with the newbie Nguyen as a partner and sends her on all sorts of wild goose chases so that she can concentrate on what she thinks is best. As she moves deeper and deeper into her own investigation, she stumbles across a sinister genetic experiment that may prove to undo years of advancement. Add to this political intervention and a genuine fear for her own life and you have a fast-paced and thought-provoking look at a dystopian future.

This book was a lot more insightful than it seemed at first. Even though it is explained that the male genes were eradicated I somehow thought for the first half of the book that the principal character was male. It goes to show how clever the writing is and how your brain interprets it. Some books with similar themes have ideas so out there that the reader can just shake their heads and put it aside as a book. This theme, while very controversial, is not impossible with the current changes in gene experimentation. The book shows how emotional manipulation can lead to different outcomes and what happens when one woman will not back down. A very interesting concept and well-written book.