Oasis

The tragic accident of a young mother and the abduction of a prostitute to a secret island leads to the discovery of a network of highly secret medical operations including a baby factory involved with human cloning and a group of highly profitable pharmaceutical companies with a labyrinth of dark channels both in Australia and overseas.

Oasis is the refuge for the hopeless and those who have to hide from society for one reason or the other.

--------------------- Review by Dr Angie Hayes

This story is set in the Australia of the 1980’s when there was a lot of resistance to practices such as IVF which are now widely accepted. The Abraham Clinic is the Oasis for childless couples who are frustrated with the adoption process. Set up by a Polish immigrant doctor, called Joseph, with a passion for the emerging life and for helping want – to - be parents the clinic becomes a unique centre for exclusive medical services including IVF and human cloning. The expansive facilities on a mysterious small island in the Lawrence River delta are also home to top level medical research and a pharmaceutical company with international operations. Joseph does not know that his adopted son Jacob has turned into a unscrupulous power hungry megalomaniac who has no problems using criminal avenues to expand his influence. Most of the staff is devoted to him because they have some dark history which forces them to hide from the law. Jacob uses the cold blooded killer Mark to abduct young prostitutes to be used as foster mothers in the clinic. When he kills a police officer who was checking him out all hell breaks loose and a whole series of unexplained accidents and events begins to fall into place. The real story behind the Abraham Clinic comes out during a raid but it ends in a moral dilemma. This is an exciting story that does not waste the reader’s time with lengthy or irrelevant descriptions. Every page in this book is relevant to the core story with the occasional interlude of an erotic scene. The book is professionally written, all the scientific and medical details are believable, even the science fiction part of human cloning. At the same time the style makes easy and entertaining reading that keeps mind and emotions involved at all times. The characters are interesting and well described with distinctively likable characters, such as the young prostitute Natalie. The dislikeable characters are described in a way that makes the reader understand what has led them to be the way they are rather than just as “the baddy”. For example Mark has become the cold blooded killer he is after returning from the Vietnam war where it was his task to operate as a sole and silent killer in the jungle, eliminating any Vietcong with a garrotte. He becomes traumatised and can only live on a heavy drug regime but he has lost his respect for human life. The book is sure to initiate some discussions about social and moral standards and perceptions.