Prevention is a suspenseful conspiracy-style novel by J.C. Dashwood. Its central protagonist is Oliver Dalton, a family man fast approaching his fiftieth birthday. A renowned scientist, Oliver has been commissioned to study the DNA records from a national database to seek out individuals who may be biologically prone to success in the fields of science and technology, unlike his own artistic children, particularly drama and music student Annie. Oliver, who once had a leaning to be musical himself, appreciates his family’s artistic roots, but not everyone does. In fact, another organisation has been poking around in the DNA records too, singling out the non-scientific populace with a dangerous scheme in mind to effectively remove them from existence.

J.C. Dashwood presents a highly detailed read that gives a complete picture of the Dalton family, their occupations and their everyday lives. Amongst this highly realistic portrayal of middle-class success, there lies the constant undercurrent of threat which I found highly intriguing. Prevention is a well-researched scientific novel, with oodles of information about DNA that enthusiasts in the field will enjoy, and therefore the future dark turns of the novel seem highly plausible and well-conceived. It’s a novel that requires concentration to truly appreciate, with a varied cast of villainous and high-powered people, but it’s well worth the effort for fans of complex plots and dialogue-driven narratives. Overall, I’d say Prevention is an acquired taste, but those who get into its twisting story will not be disappointed by its fascinating and truly wicked concept.

Prevention by J.C. Dashwood is a novel of suspense. Oliver Dalton works for the government, analyzing DNA. It is up to him to find patterns and match people genetically to jobs in technology and science. The government doesn’t see anything wrong with doing this and neither do other people. Especially those who are doing the same thing. Oliver spots things in his searches that tell him someone else is on the same trail and he thinks that he should report this to his manager. An international organization is getting busy, looking for people who are not suited to the science and technology jobs. Instead, because these people are seen as having no true worth, the organization chooses to eliminate them from the database forever. Oliver takes a holiday from the job and spends time with his family in Munich. But his daughter is in danger, grave danger, and it’s a job for Oliver and the police to track down these people and stop them.

Prevention by J.C. Dashwood was an interesting story. Scarily, it is something that today’s governments, or other organizations, could easily be working on doing, which makes the whole story just that little bit eerie. On the whole, I enjoyed the story; it was very well developed and the plot line was good. The characters were suited to the story, but I do have just one observation – I found that there were a lot of words used to describe scenes and situations where a few would have been enough. However, it was a good read and I believe this is a first novel anyway.

I could not put it down