Forrest, Christopher 1971(?)–

PERSONAL:

Born c. 1971; married; wife's name Amy; children: David Kyle. Education: University of Florida, 1992; St. Thomas University College of Law, Ph.D., 1997; Harvard Law School, M.A., 1998.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Sarasota, FL. E-mail—cdflaw@yahoo.com.

CAREER:

Writer and attorney. Civil litigation practice in Sarasota, FL.

MEMBER:

Mensa, International Thriller Writers.

WRITINGS:

The Genesis Code (novel), Forge (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Christopher Forrest is a writer and attorney. He was educated at the University of Florida, where he earned his undergraduate degree in 1992. From there he went on to St. Thomas University College of Law, earning his Ph.D., and then the Harvard Law School's program for the instruction of lawyers, graduating in 1998. Forrest is a civil litigator in private practice in Sarasota, Florida. Beyond his work as an attorney, Forrest has an adventurous side. He has traveled through a number of exotic locations, including Central America, where he visited the Mayan ruins deep in the jungle, and Belize, where he went free diving off of the barrier reefs along the coast. He has also spent time living on a sail boat.

Forrest's first novel, The Genesis Code, which was published in 2007, exhibits the adventurous side of his personality. The book begins with Nobel Prize winner Joshua Ambergris, a brilliant geneticist who is also a partner in the international biotech company Triad Genomics, and who had recently made an astounding discovery. Within the markers of human DNA, Ambergris has found a secret text rendered in code. Forrest bases this discovery on a combination of several half-explained scientific facts and vague theories, including the Dresden Code and the Sefer Yetsirah. Ambergris's discovery has the potential to be Earth-shattering. However, before he has the chance to unleash his findings on the world, he is murdered. No one else knows the exact nature of his discovery, but his pupil, Christian Madison, and his research assistant, Grace Nguyen, are both aware that there was a discovery of some sort, and so they attempt to retrace Ambergris's steps and the clues he left behind to his research in order to determine what he learned that was so fantastic it was possibly worth his life. Over the course of their investigation, they discover an age-old organization that has been entrusted with keeping the code a secret, and so find themselves battling to uncover the code and solve the mystery before its protectors can stop them. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly wrote that "there are engaging digressions into math and science, but too many shopworn plotlets intrude on the main business." Joe Hartlaub, reviewing for Bookreporter.com, praised both the fictional and factual aspects of the novel, commenting that "Forrest's research into the obscure works of early civilization provides a fascinating starting point for anyone interested in exploring the possibilities of what knowledge may have been lost."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, August, 2007, David Pitt, review of The Genesis Code, p. 44.

Publishers Weekly, June 11, 2007, review of The Genesis Code, p. 38.

Sarasota Herald Tribune, March 22, 2004, "A Lawyer Goes Literary; North Port's Assistant City Attorney Is about to Be Published," p. 1.

ONLINE

Bookreporter.com,http://www.bookreporter.com/ (April 16, 2008), Joe Hartlaub, review of The Genesis Code.

Christopher Forrest Home Page,http://www.christopherforrest.com (April 16, 2008).

SF Reader Web site,http://www.sfreader.com/ (April 16, 2008), Benjamin Boulden, review of The Genesis Code.