The Xactilias Project by RJ Lawrence: book review

The Xactilias Project (2017) is set in southeast Asia in contemporary times.

American Claire Foley is detained. ‘Men of power know this one true fact … fear is the one true controller.’ She is advised that ‘Sometimes, you cannot win … But you can still decide how you will lose.’

She is detained because she is a genius, with a photographic memory, and the people detaining her want her intellectual gifts to do something ‘unimaginable.’ She is a genetics researcher – on human aging, but the mysterious company wants her to work for them on the Xactilias Project, for one year, but they keep the details vague.

When Claire agrees, she must keep the recruitment details a secret. She is taken to the residential laboratory in a secret location in southeast Asia.

There are dark secrets in the laboratory and Claire inevitably takes control of her own liberation. But its not that easy. As her 72-year-old friend Alfred says: ‘You have a brilliant mind, but even you can’t see around every corner.’

This is an easy read, but not as suspenseful as I had expected. It lacks complexity and reads more like a ‘this happened and then that happened’ sequence of events. More character development would enhance the plot. So for me, it wasn’t a satisfactory read, but other readers may find the research elements interesting.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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