Biotechnology Is Murder: A Ben Candidi Mystery (Ben Candidi Mysteries) [Paperback]

Dirk Wyle (Author)

Book Description

Series: Ben Candidi Mysteries | Publication Date: April 2000

**A Tale of Mystery and Suspense from the World of Entrepreneurial Drug Development** One week before receiving his Ph.D. in pharmacology, Ben Candidi is offered a high-paying, four-day consulting job. Ben will consult for Brian Broadmoore, M.D., a Boston biomedical venture capitalist who has come to Miami on business. Dr. Broadmoore has bought an option to purchase BIOTECH, a Miami-based biotechnology company. BIOTECH has patents on three compounds from sponge extracts that show promise as a cure for cancer.

BIOTECH's price is $20 million. Dr. Broadmoore's option to purchase will run out in four days. He will pay Ben $24,000 to visit BIOTECH and check out their scientific claims. Ben goes to work. After auditing BIOTECH's records for one day, he confirms dramatic tumor shrinkage in animals. And the patents check out. Everything checks out except for BIOTECH's key personnel. The president is a gruff-mannered construction tycoon. The head scientist dresses like a f! ashion model and has an attitude to match. And BIOTECH's inventor is as helpful as a bad guy in a karate movie.

On the second day of the job, Ben wonders why Dr. Broadmoore hired him on such short notice. And what happened to Ben's predecessor? And why won't Dr. Broadmoore give him a straight answer? On the third day, Ben is caught in a web of murder and high-stakes intrigue. Dirk Wyle describes a high-tech, multi-player gamble to transform a $50,000 discovery into a $200-million stock offering. He takes the reader on an exciting treasure-hunt in uncharted territory between the lab bench, clinic, patent office, and executive suite.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Narrator Ben Candidi, almost a doctor of pharmacology, jumps at the chance to serve as highly paid consultant to an investor in medical technology. The Miami-based outfit Ben must investigate seems quite adept at subverting his efforts to gather crucial information. Despite his Mensa-level intelligence, Ben often displays a Watson-in-the-presence-of-Sherlock mentality until the plot, proceeding from one dry scene fraught with scientific jargon and paper shuffling to the next, finally results in murder. Of possible regional interest.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Dirk Wyle (nom de plume) is a 30-year veteran of biomedical science and longtime resident of Miami. His novels deal with the why's and how's of crime involving biomedical scientists and physicians. Considering guns and bullets to be overused devices, he gives literary preference to methods that could fool even a coroner.

His free-spirited protagonist, Ben Candidi, accepts the dual challenge of finding the murderer and discovering what made him do it in the first place. Dirk's interests also include the South Florida waters, technology's business applications of science, multiculturalism -- and the telling of a good story. He has received the icon Award from the National Writers Association (S. FL Chapter), he is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, and his first mystery novel, Pharmacology Is Murder, was selected as the Best First Mystery of 1998 by Joe's Detective Pages. Dirk invites your visit his web site. He is hard at work on two more Ben ! Candidi mysteries.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Rainbow Books (April 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568250452
• ISBN-13: 978-1568250458
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,877,460 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #89 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers > Medical

More About the Author

Dirk Wyle's mystery-thrillers play out against an authentically rendered backdrop of biomedical science. His stories are informed by a long scientific career that included a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, postdoctoral work in Germany and service as a medical school professor in Miami ("Google" Duncan H. Haynes). He conducted research in abnormal blood coagulation and drug delivery and invented a drug microencapsulation technology (searchable at www.uspto.gov) which led to the founding of three companies employing approximately 65 people. Countless story ideas came as a byproduct of that quest, and eventual commercial success gave him leeway to create the Ben Candidi mystery-thriller series. Believing there are no stone walls separating the realms of popular science, serious literature, formal mystery and cliff-handing suspense, Dirk Wyle has created stories that play out in all four arenas. Protagonist Ben accepts "straightforward scientific" projects which quickly turn perplexing, mysterious and then sinister. With the help of fiancee Rebecca Levis, world health physician, Ben solves the mystery just before the bad guys (and gals) strike back. Like his protagonists Ben and Rebecca, Dirk Wyle does not regard work and play as necessarily separate activities. He enjoys researching the books' exotic locations, which include the waters of South Florida, the Bahamas and the Brazilian Amazon.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excting Mystery, February 10, 2000

By 

Micaela (Miami, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Biotechnology Is Murder: A Ben Candidi Mystery (Ben Candidi Mysteries) (Paperback)

The story begins in a spirit of academic adventure and winds up like a hard boiled detective novel. I was rooting for Ben Candidi all the way. The novel was hard to put down.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ben Candidi revs up to high gear before this one ends., February 4, 2000

By 

Suzy Schultz (Ohio and Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Biotechnology Is Murder: A Ben Candidi Mystery (Ben Candidi Mysteries) (Paperback)

How excited I was to find Dirk Wyle's second book is now available. This one is even better than the first elegant science mystery! Now Ben investigates a get rich quick cure for cancer surrounded by girls, boats, South Florida, mystery and greed. Dirk Wyle has hit his stride in this novel. In the closing chapters, hero Ben develops the daring of 007.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A timely, engaging plot with larger than life characters., January 3, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Biotechnology Is Murder: A Ben Candidi Mystery (Ben Candidi Mysteries) (Paperback)

Dirk Wyle follows up his 1998 Best First Mystery Pharmacology is Murder with Biotechnology Is Murder. With his more than 30 year experience in Biomedical Science and his considerable knowledge in the areas of psychology, business, science, and writing, he is a sure winner. His character Ben Candidi is just finishing his Ph.D., but Ben packs more punch per square inch than most veteran detectives.

A pharmacology student and Mensa activist, Ben Candidi is tapped for a 4-day consulting job, guaranteed to generate $24,000 to check scientific claims by a company called BIOTECH. Ben quickly learns that: there is a legitimate product that can shrink tumors in rats, but it has not been tested in humans. The group that Ben is supposed to work with function on a "need to know" basis only, and communicate little. Ben's predecessor disappeared, and no one is talking. When Ben tries to communicate with the inventor of the product, Dr. Moon, he is met with an uncooperative, paranoid little man who refuses to give out information:

"What was I to make of this posturing? It was straight out of a B-grade karate flick. He was treating me like an intruder who had pissed on the floor of his "dojo." Is this the way he had treated my predecessor, Dr. Yang? Had he killed him with a sucker chop to the neck? Was he fermenting Yang's flesh in the back room? The thought must have made me smile again, since Dr. Moon's eyes were now flashing angry."

Mr. Wyle knows his stuff in the biotechnology area, and he has Ben take the reader though an incredibly intricate maze of information in a straightforward manner. Ben is a delightful character, being all too human for his amazing intellectual capacity. We see graphic images spilling out of Ben's narration, and can't wait to turn the page to see what else this scientific deathtrap has in store.

Dirk Wyle has written a timely plot with larger than life characters with which the reader has an immediate affinity. Ben Candidi is the young Jack Ryan of the biotechnological world. He is drawn into the clutches of industrial pirates from every direction and still manages to entertain.

Shelley Glodowski, Reviewer