BLOOD RELATIONS

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Outline:

DAWN GREENWOOD, 48, supplements her disability benefit by working from home as a genealogy sleuth. She’s exhilarated by the ‘time travel’ that allows her to vicariously explore fascinating and often turbulent times. As well as an income, it provides a prized if temporary escape from her wheelchair and the faulty gene that put her there a year ago. But though she skilfully resolves other families’ intricate puzzles, ironically Dawn cannot locate the daughter she had adopted as a teenage mum. Determined to warn her of the genetic inheritance she could face and how to best manage it, Dawn uploads her own raw DNA to the ancestry site mypastandpresent.com, knowing that if other distant or close relations of her daughter have done the same, forensic genealogy could provide the links she needs to locate her.

Dawn’s lifelong friend and neighbour, TOMMY, is murdered, the latest victim of a notorious gay sex attacker. She describes to the investigating officer, D S PAUL TYLER, 38, the motorcycle rider she saw stalking Tommy just days before the attack. She suggests that if the police have a DNA sample of the killer and they upload it to an ancestry website, she could probably identify the gay-app stalker by using her skills as a forensic genealogist. In the USA, numerous killers and rapists have been brought to justice in just this way. Tyler’s boss, D I GERRY WILLOUGHBY, quickly dismisses the idea when they discover the tiny DNA sample they found is useless. But Tyler knows they’re against the clock; the violence of the homophobic assaults mean it’s only a matter of time before someone else dies.

Dawn is determined to find Tommy’s killer and turns to her sister CHRISSY, 40, who works as a customer service agent at Forenica Inc. The biggest forensic genealogy lab in the UK, it is used by the police nationwide. She persuades Chrissy to covertly have the lab extract DNA from a cigarette she saw Tommy’s killer discard whilst stalking his prey.

Dawn is stunned when the DNA reveals the attacker has two X chromosomes: Tommy’s killer is a woman. Dawn uploads the raw DNA to Mypastandpresent.com under the name ‘Joan Doe’, and is soon hard at work backtracking through 150 years of family history. But her concentration is rocked when a possible link to her daughter is revealed. But the link is a dead end, and her hopes are dashed.

Using online documentation and real world sources, from parish records to overgrown graveyards, Dawn brings her focus back to Tommy’s killer. Slowly she begins to piece together the complex ancestry and live relatives of a killer. But as she balances keeping Tyler at bay until she can give him the ‘anonymous’ tip-off with the stalker’s identity, her prey becomes aware of her probing. Suddenly, the hunter becomes the hunted and Dawn needs all her ingenuity and strength as the killer closes in on her. Finally, she is able to send Tyler an anonymous tip-off with ‘Joan Doe’s’ real name and address. But the killer is on her way to where Dawn lives. In a nerve-wracking encounter, Doe corners Dawn at home. But Tyler has pieced together exactly who gave him the tip off, and realises Dawn is in danger. He arrives at her home…. Just as Dawn hurtles her wheelchair into a teetering set of bookshelves, flooring Doe instantly.

Later, Tyler explains to Dawn the revenge motivation of the killer, an unloved girl ignored by her gay father when she was abused by her druggy brother. We know Tyler knows what Dawn has done. We also know she will do it again – with a little help from Tyler – and maybe get closer to finding her daughter in the process.