In 2001's The Babel Effect, author Daniel Hecht looks at the psychology, genetics and neuroscience of violence. With a husband-and-wife team leading a group of researchers, questions of whether the propensity towards violence is in our blood, whether violence is a disease that is treatable and curable arise, as does the most disturbing question - even if we unlock the mystery surrounding violence, are we immune to it? How will we react when those we love are threatened? Violently?

Research celebrities Ryan and Jess McCloud and their team of geniuses are contacted by a pharmaceutical bigwig, with a proposition - identify what causes violence so he can market a cure. Investigation into the issue rapidly branches out, as, naturally, there's more to violence than meets the eye. Compounding the issue is that both Ryan and Jess have experienced the snowballing effect of violence in their pasts, making them alternately wary of and committed to the project. 

When Ryan is called to oversee a vaccination project in Africa, he sees one extreme branch of what Jess calls "the Babel Effect", as one warlord replaces another warlord in Ethiopia, with dangerous consequences for being on the wrong side (or, in Ryan's case, having outlived his usefulness). Returning to Boston after lengthy negotiations, he finds that Jess has been kidnapped. The FBI are reluctant to pursue the case, because they will have to step on some very big toes in order to find Jess. The CIA had warned Jess that her research was taking her hazardously close to clandestine national security experiments, but insist to Ryan that they weren't responsible for her disappearance. As Ryan runs out of suspects, he also finds himself running out of time - Jess is due to give birth to their second child at any moment. 

It's a complex plot for a complex question, but Hecht finds a good balance and delivers a compelling story through it all. There are pages of science and theory, but the explanations are integrated very naturally and smoothly into the narrative. The plot moves from event to event logically, and as the book takes on a "whodunnit" nature, everything that happened before - every meeting the think-tank has, Ryan's trip to Africa - everything turns out to be relevant and important as time grows short for Jess and her unborn child.

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