The 100 Year Miracle

This tedious novel from Ream (Losing Clementine), featuring Rachel Bell, a biochemist and chronic-pain sufferer, chronicles her race to unlock the analgesic properties of a rare bioluminescent arthropod native to Washington's San Juan Islands before it can complete its six-day life cycle and fall dormant for another 100 years. Escalating doses of prescription drugs will kill Rachel within the year, so she's hoping the centuries-old legends are true and the tiny creatures contain a compound that can save her. Such research is outside the scope of her university-funded study, so Rachel sets up a private lab in the home of ailing island resident Harry Streatfield, who agrees to keep the scientist's after-hours project secret in return for access to her experimental painkiller. Ream squanders an intriguing premise on shallow characters, leaden pacing, and an unsatisfying conclusion. A tonally jarring subplot involving Harry's ex-wife, her affair with a younger man, and her restoration of a sailboat muddies the main story line and threatens to push the book out of thriller territory and into the realm of women's fiction. Agent: Barbara Poelle, Irene Goodman Literary. (May)