“Writers are liars my dear, surely you know that by now?”
–Neil Gaiman
In Michael LaPointe’s techno-thriller The Creep , we follow New York journalist Whitney Chase as a random encounter gives her the inside scoop on a major medical breakthrough: the development of synthetic blood. At first it seems like the story that will catapult her out of the culture pages of her magazine, but she’s soon drawn into a bigger and grislier story than she could imagine.
Against the backdrop of the aftermath of 9/11, the impending invasion of Iraq, and the end of print journalism, The Creep explores how easy it is to deceive and embellish. Whitney struggles with her own uncontrollable urge to “improve” her reporting by adding colourful details, and it never occurs to her that she might also become a vector for someone else’s lies. When the charismatic doctor representing , Rubicon, the company behind the medical miracle tells her “we have all the blood in the world,” she can’t resist the chance to write something important. And, as a liar herself, she’s well-placed to spot the exaggerations and omissions in Rubicon’s polished pitch.
We know up front that this investigation ended Whitney’s journalism career, so the central mystery, which still manages to be nail-bitingly suspenseful, is exactly how that happened. How did the whip-smart, ambitious young journalist end up as a corporate consultant with mysteriously bandaged wrists?
The “creep” in the title is Whitney’s urge to give real life stories an artificial polish, but at first, the excitement of a real medical breakthrough is enough to keep it in check. But soon, she discovers that not only are the recipients of the artificial transfusions are not given a chance to consent—they are usually impoverished people who have been so severely injured they could not wait for real blood—but most of them have disappeared within a few weeks after their treatments.
The novel grapples with a number of important philosophical questions. How much inequality are we willing to tolerate? Are we willing to sacrifice the weak and vulnerable for the greater good, or do we believe every human has inherent value? Can public trust recover after confidently delivered BS is repeatedly substituted for fact?
The Creep came out in 2021, when the world had a different set of political problems than the ones facing it today, but we need those answers now more than ever.