Shrinking Violets

Brendan Towers works as a research scientist for Monique Depardieu, a French scientist who is heads a project exploring immortality. Monique undertakes a number of operations, experimenting on herself but she is killed in a motor vehicle accident. Towers cannot continue with the same research.



However, he employs a Russian immigrant, Ivan Dobrek, to help him with something a relating to Monique's work. He wants to help regenerate lost limbs and they work on Chilean snails for this purpose. However the Russians want the DNA notes relating to immortality and they send Vladimir Rostoff to get them. He worked with Ivana in the Minsk Institute in the past and has a penchant for her even though he is married.



Towers and Ivan begin to live together and they employ their next door neighbours, the Carsons, to join in with their experiment. After taking the tablets, the Carsons suddenly find that they are getting shorter. Despite all their efforts they continue getting smaller losing height all the time. Others have the same trouble but Ivana cannot find an antidote for the condition. Sadly the authorities get wind of it and the heavens come crashing in on the research scientists.



A good book with a super ending!