Double Helix

A gripping new medical drama from the bestselling author of The Silence of Snow.

Would you want to know what awaits you? Would you want to be in control of your life . . . and death? What would you do for love?

'Sooner or later, willingly or unwillingly, he’s going to leave you.'

The words cut deep. Emily knows Jake is not like his father; he’d never leave her willingly. But if he has inherited his mother's genes, then Huntington’s disease is more than likely to take him away. He may even make the same request his mother made, when Jake was still a teenager: to end the suffering for good.

About the Author

Eileen Merriman’s three young adult novels, Pieces of You, Catch Me When You Fall, and Invisibly Breathing, were finalists in the NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults in 2018 and 2019, and all three were Storylines Notable Books. Her fourth young adult novel A Trio of Sophies was published in 2020 to huge critical praise and was also published in Germany. Her first adult novel, Moonlight Sonata, was released in July 2019, with reviewers calling it ‘skilfully crafted’, and a ‘carefully layered and thoughtful drama, with beautifully observed and believable Kiwi characters’. It was longlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction 2020.Her other awards include runner-up in the 2018 Sunday Star-Times Short Story Award, third for three consecutive years in the 2014-2016 Sunday Star-Times Short Story Awards, second in the 2015 Bath Flash Fiction Award, commended in the 2015 Bath Short Story Competition, and first place in the 2015 Graeme Lay Short Story Competition. She works full-time as a consultant haematologist at North Shore Hospital.