Living Proof

December 12, 2011
Journalist Piekoff’s unsettling, timely debut presents an uncomfortably plausible near-future, in which the destruction of all human embryos has been outlawed in the name of saving the lives of unborn children. Trent Rowe, an agent for the New York City bureau of the U.S. Department of Embryo Preservation, investigates a suspiciously popular Manhattan fertility clinic run by a suspected “radical,” Dr. Arianna Drake, the daughter of a known opponent of the DEP. Trent’s superiors hope that a shutdown of the clinic “for ethical transgressions” will shore up the DEP’s imploding political support. Trent, initially a believer in the DEP cause, eventually finds himself caught in an ethical dilemma he could never have envisioned, torn between irreconcilable goals. Some clumsy prose, less than well-rounded characters, and a plot that follows well-established thriller conventions show Peikoff still learning her craft. Still, this engaging effort marks her as an author to watch. Agent: Erica Silverman,
Trident Media.

January 1, 2012
Stem-cell research and big government's intrusion into everyday lives take center stage in a debut novel by journalist Peikoff. Arianna is a physician and fertility specialist who operates a New York clinic that specializes in implanting harvested embryos in women who have been unable to get pregnant by conventional means. The year is 2027 and Arianna's one of many medical-clinic operators terrified of a shadowy government agency known as the DEP, or the New York Department of Embryo Preservation, a super-right-wing effort to ascertain that embryos are legally protected from misuse, which includes research. Clinic operators like Arianna must endure monthly embryo counts from the agency's armed representatives, who have the power to exact huge fines and worse consequences from those who violate their rules. Trent Rowe, an inspector with the DEP, suspects that something is off with Arianna's clinic, and his boss, Dopp, wants the evidence. The DEP's survival could depend on a well-timed investigation, and Dopp instructs Trent to go undercover and find the proof that will allow the agency to close Arianna down. Trent, the product of deeply religious parents, manages to insinuate himself into Arianna's life, eventually finding out her deepest, darkest secret and meeting Sam, her old friend and champion, who works diligently to help her through a personal crisis. But as the man who originally set out to destroy Arianna finds himself increasingly attracted to her, Trent also fights his upbringing and indoctrination by the DEP to view people like her and Sam as the enemy and themselves as the arbiters of right. Peikoff shows a deep understanding of the issues she explores, but she paints the future with a shallow hand, never quite convincing the reader that her version of 2027 is possible. Her characters, in particular Trent and arch villain Dopp, come off as over-the-top, thoroughly evil and unforgivable, but never interesting enough to justify the reader's time. Peikoff may have serious reporting chops, but this book roils with manufactured melodrama and presents a future that comes across as anything but plausible.

(COPYRIGHT (2012) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)