Set in 1969, when McCullough worked at Yale, the story starts with the theft of a lethal toxin from Dr Millie Hunter's lab at Chubb University.
Millie is white, her husband, Dr Jim Hunter, a brilliant black scientist around whom the words potential Nobel prizewinner are swirling. She reports the toxin theft to her father, medical examiner Patrick O'Donnell, who is Carmine Delmonico's cousin.
Then people start dying and Jim is linked to the deaths.
Is he responsible and if so, why, having overcome prejudice all his adult life, would he risk everything when he has a new book about to be released?
Jim's book is important, as it is a non-academic presentation already tipped to become a bestseller, one that could lift the Hunters out of the poverty they have endured for years as all their money has been poured into Jim's research.
The Prodigal Son is a fine example of what a good police story can be, with multiple threads intelligently woven together. The ending is a little unexpected and all the better for it.
• Gillian Vine is a Dunedin writer.
