Double Helix by Nancy Werlin

DoubleHelix 
by Nancy Werlin

Eli is smart, really smart. After he graduates from high school, he is supposed to go to a really good college, but Eli puts school off. Instead he is offered a job in a genetics lab with a legendary scientist, named Quincy Wyatt. In the science world this is a little like when a basketball player gets drafted out of high school straight into the NBA. 

Life could be almost perfect for Eli. He is getting paid big bucks. Quincy Wyatt has taken a special interest in him, buying him expensive dinners and introducing him to interesting people. 

There is just a little problem with the situation. Eli’s father seems to hate Quincy Wyatt and is completely against Eli working at the lab. At some point in the past something happened between Eli’s parents and Mr. Wyatt but Eli’s father won’t say what it is. And Eli’s mother is debilitated with Huntington’s disease. She is in a nursing home and can no longer talk.

Eli tries to unravel the mystery on his own. He starts snooping around at the lab. As Eli gets deeper into the mystery he begins to realize that he is actually at the center of the big secret. And his father, mother and Mr. Wyatt may not be exactly the type of people that they appear to be.

Booktalk by Jane Wheeler, Whatcom County Library System

DoubleHelix 
by Nancy Werlin

Eli just cannot face college right after graduation, and takes a job at Wyatt Transgenics, famous for its biogenetic research. This company is run by Dr. Quincy Wyatt. Eli knows his mother knew him years ago, and also knows his father hates him now. But, why does his father hate Dr. Wyatt? Eli’s father won’t tell him, and he cannot ask his mother because she is dying and in the final debilitating stages of Huntington disease. The longer Eli works for Dr. Wyatt, the more puzzled he becomes. Why was the doctor so eager to give him a good job, and why has he been so friendly to Eli? Why does Dr. Wyatt’s houseguest, Kayla, look so much like Eli’s mother at eighteen? Why has Eli always felt superior- smarter at school, and more athletic- to the point that he purposely avoids competing? Mesmerizing answers to all these questions are slowly revealed in this chilling book.

Do you have any questions like Eli’s--?!

Booktalk by Kathy Caldwell, Woodward Middle School Library