The Smart Ones

The Adventures of Clark Westfield - Book 3 - The Smart Ones

Clark is following the cases of several missing students gifted with extreme intelligence. Reluctantly, he accepts an assignment to profile a consumer genetics agency that is engaged in research in the old Fort Monmouth army base in New Jersey. Clark gets caught up in the whirlwind of technology, ethics, and temptation. Clark is drawn to the founder, an enigmatic woman genius who is collecting and curating a main database of genetic code from millions of people and cataloging epigenetic markers. After identifying and harvesting the good genes, CRISPR-Cas9 technology can add them to one's genome to increase disease prevention, longevity and human potential. But as Clark explores the profound changes gene therapy will bring to the human race, the smart persons creating this brave new world begin to meet various tragic ends, and he simultaneously uncovers something far deeper and more sinister.

The Adventures of Clark Westfield...

As one of the last of the golden generation of investigative reporters, middle aged Clark grew up in New Jersey in the 1970's and 1980's. A sponge for pop culture and world events, Clark's passion for journalism was religious in its devotion, and the pursuit of the news as a way to find truth was a vocation he held with deep conviction. After decades of breaking crucial stories about the highest levels of power and politics, Clark's success has made him a celebrity reporter and a star in the industry. He won two Pulitzer Prizes and a Peabody Award for his writing among countless additional accolades.

As he explores the major news topics that are the set design for modern times, he continuously uncovers very uncomfortable questions, often with even more uncomfortable answers. But can investigative journalism still be his weapon in a world where truth is a moving target, undermined by social media, repackaged when inconvenient and weaponized by the powerful entities who make decisions about all our lives?