It's April 2024, and a quiet evening at Dr. Phineas Mann's dinner table is interrupted by a mysterious visit from FBI agents.
As worsening climate change leads to more difficult asthma cases, Phineas has been tasked with investigating a novel treatment in a Phase 3 trial with SynMedical's Dr. Marie Porter. Marie has just returned to North Carolina 26 years after her single mother abruptly extracted her from the sixth grade to disappear into the rural Northwest.
Meanwhile, the Republican U.S. President, in the final year of his second term, develops alpha gal syndrome, a life-threatening allergic condition from Lone Star ticks that find their way north as the planet warms. 
Then a surprising assignment sends Phineas and Marie, against their wills, into intrigue at the highest levels in a hotter, dirtier, and more polarized country. 

Mark Anthony Powers grew up in the small town of West Lebanon, NH. At Cornell University, he branched out into Creative Writing and Russian while majoring in engineering. After receiving his MD from Dartmouth, he went south to the University of North Carolina for an internship and residency in Internal Medicine, followed by a fellowship in Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine. After almost forty years in clinical practice and teaching, he retired from Duke University as an Associate Professor Emeritus of Medicine and began his exploration of other parts of his brain. Writing, gardening, IT, and magic courses were just some of the enjoyment that followed. A deep dive into beekeeping led to his presidency of the county beekeeping association and certification as a Master Beekeeper.Two cups of coffee and two hours of writing most mornings produced the medical thrillers A Swarm in May, Breath and Mercy, Nature's Bite, and his forthcoming book in this series, Culled. To learn more or connect with Mark, please visit www.markanthonypowers.com.