Caroline de Costa – February 11 2018

Death of Dolly the sheep (first cloned mammal) – February 14 2003

Caroline started medical school in Australia but ended up completing her degree at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland where she became interested in women’s rights and followed this passion for social justice back in Australia becoming active in reforming abortion law. Caroline was awarded the President’s Medal of the Australian Medical Association in 2010, partly in recognition of this work. Caroline has worked in PNG and in indigenous communities in Far North QLD, studying possible interventions to reduce the effects of fetal alcohol syndrome and sharing the knowledge and practice of abortion and emergency contraception. Caroline has authored many academic titles and has written one other novel, Under the Skin, a tale of intrigue also set in tropical Far North Queensland in a community preparing for a cyclone.

Clone Baby
Boolarong Press, 2006; ISBN 9781921054976
Cloning people is wrong. It’s forbidden by law. No responsible scientist would dream of trying it … Or would they? When Sydney gynaecologist Dr Malcolm Gledhill is called to the hospital bedside of his only son Simon, he makes a sudden and momentous decision that leads to the birth of his second son, Stephen. But who exactly is Stephen? Simon’s brother? Or his clone? Consequences, foreseen and unforeseen, flow from Malcolm’s decision and Stephen’s birth. Malcolm himself acquires celebrity status as he propagates his message but for Stephen and his mother Margaret the results of Malcolm’s decision are monstrous and frightening. And in an unexpected denouement Malcolm too is ultimately defeated by the experiment he has undertaken.

Double Madness
Margaret River Press, 2015; ISBN 9780987561565
The first in an anticipated trilogy, Double Madness takes us into a sordid underbelly of psycho-sexual depravity. As local residents and authorities in Far North Queensland assess the damage in the aftermath of Cyclone Yasi, a woman’s body is found in bizarre circumstances deep in the rainforest. Thirty-four-year-old Aboriginal single mother, Detective Senior Constable Cass Diamond of Cairns CIB is on the team investigating the murder of fashionista Odile Janvier. With a degree in criminology, a black belt in tae kwon do, a wry sense of humour and a checkered past, it’s not long before she uncovers a disturbing connection between the victim and the local medical profession. Double Madness weaves the author’s knowledge of working in Indigenous communities with her experience in the medical practice into a gripping crime fiction.