At the start of Smith's overheated follow-up to her debut, The Timer Game
, someone with a crossbow shoots an arrow into the chest of Professor Thaddeus Bartholomew, a gadfly protesting GM, or genetically modified, crops on the eve of an international agricultural convention in Palm Springs, Calif. The attacker then douses the professor with gasoline and lights a match. Alarmed by Bartholomew's murder, the FBI suspects Radical Damage, a violent protest group, has plans to disrupt the conference at its closing ceremony. Grace Descanso, who works for the San Diego police crime lab, finds various family members complicating the investigation, including her estranged Uncle Pete, an FBI special agent, and her pregnant cousin, Vonda, who's possibly involved with the radicals. In spite of the hectic pace, the precise nature of the radicals' threats is revealed too late to generate much suspense, and the wrapup is unsatisfyingly neat. Author tour. (Mar.)
