Line #21 Literature/TheRadix


1	[[quoteright:197:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/radix_3235.jpg]]
2	''The Radix'' is a 2010 mystery novel by Brett King. The eponymous [[MacGuffin Radix]] is an ancient plant that holds miraculous healing powers and may even be able to [[ImmortalityInducer grant immortality]]. It belonged to Jesus Christ, later it was sought by Vatican, Knights Hospitaller and the Borgia family. In the sixteenth century it disappeared.\
3	Now it has been found again, thanks to a genius (though [[MadScientist insane]]) cryptographist Edgar Wurm, who found clues by decrypting the Voynich manuscript. [[AdventurerArchaeologist Adventurer Paleopathologist]] John Brynstone retrieves the relic, and the chase for it starts again, including the Knights of Malta, modern Borgias, the [=US=] government and [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Taft-Ryder Pharmaceuticals]].
4	However, the Radix itself is just a half of the miracle: to manifest its true power one needs the "Scintilla", the recipe for the elixir. It is long lost too, and the last person to know its whereabouts was Carl Gustav Jung, whose castle still keeps clues, if one knows how to find them.\
5	The book features a lot of action, chasing and shooting as well as [[{{Infodump}} elaborate lectures]] in history, mythology and cryptography.\
6	Not to be confused with the videogame ''VideoGame/RadixBeyondTheVoid''.
7	----
8	!!The novel contains examples of:
9
10	* AbandonedArea: An abandoned slaughterhouse where Borgias take abducted Wurm for interrogation. Later Brynstone confronts Metzger on an empty construction site... Which is not actually abandoned, but the showdown happened on the Christmas Night, so everybody was on holiday. Apparently, including any guards the site had.
11	* AdventurerArchaeologist: Brynstone. Morre accurately, he is an Adventurer paleopathologist.
12	* AgentScully: Gabriel Bitonti is an interesting example. He is a Vatican's investigator whose job is to (dis)prove any alleged miracles. So this is rather his job than nature: "I have examined countless 'miracles' and found them wanting. I go into each investigation as a pessimist and pray I will emerge an optimist. I seldom authenticate miracles".
13	* AmbiguousEnding: [[spoiler:Wurm's dead body disappears from the tomb, leaving large footprints that could belong to Santo Borgia... Or Wurm himself.]]
14	* AncientConspiracy: Knights of Malta, hunting for Radix for centuries and infiltrating governments.
15	* ArabOilSheikh: Prince Zaki bin Abdelaziz, Saudian ambassador to the United States, owner of a collection of mummies one of which contains the Radix.
16	* AsYouKnow: Used numerous times for exposition.
17	* BaitTheDog: Knight invites Andy the bum for a meal. Poor, poor Andy. See KickTheDog.
18	* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: Carl Gustav Jung was a leader of a cult that searched for the Radix.
19	* BookcasePassage: Instead of a petty bookcase Prince Zaki uses a terrarium full of scorpions.
20	* CameBackWrong: Discussed and averted. Cory fears that [[spoiler:after Brynstone resurrected his daughter with the power of Radix this happens to her. Fortunately, it's the opposite: she has CameBackStrong.]]
21	* CarryingTheAntidote: Brynstone injects [[spoiler:general Delgado]] with a poison and interrogates him promising to give him the antidote. He bluffs: "poison" was actually saline solution.
22	* ColdBloodedTorture: Adriana Borgia tortures Wurm. [[spoiler:The scene becomes more creepy in hindsight, when we find out she was his daughter and knew it.]]
23	* ConstantlyCurious: Cori Cassidy behaves like this letting Wurm give us lots of exposition.
24	* ConsummateProfessional: Erich Metzger's life is his job. Which is killing people.
25	* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Deena Riverside and Dilon Armstrong, respectively [=CEO=] and owner of Taft-Ryder Pharmaceuticals, who hunt for Radix to develop new, groundbreaking medicine.
26	* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Metzger kills Santiago Rojas by feeding him to insects (see PoeticSerialKiller).
27	* CurtainCamouflage: Metzger does this, and it works. Apparently, Santiago Rojas's bodyguard has FailedASpotCheck.
28	* DamselInDistress: Brynstone's wife and daughter, kidnapped by Metzger.
29	* DarkActionGirl: Adriana Borgia, almost falling into TheBaroness territory.
30	* DeathTrap: Secrets of Jung's castle are protected by a DrowningPit.
31	* DistantPrologue: The story is set in modern times, but the prologue takes place in 1502, featuring Cesare Borgia and Niccolo Machiavelli.
32	* DueToTheDead: [[spoiler:Edgar Wurm]]'s MeaningfulFuneral takes a whole chapter.
33	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Metzger may be a cold-blooded hitman, but he would never shoot someone in the back.
34	* {{Fingore}}: During the torture scene Adriana Borgia rips Wurm's fingernails.
35	* GambitPileup: Everybody (including the Borgias, [=US=] intelligence agencies, Knights of Malta and [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Corrupt Corporate Executives]]) is searching for the Radix for different reasons, messing up each other's (and sometimes their own) plans badly.
36	* GeniusBruiser: Edgar Wurm is cryptography genius, and a strong fighter. As he puts it, "It always surprises people when they get their ass kicked by a mathematician". Brynstone qualifies too.
37	* GovernmentConspiracy: Knights of Malta have occupied several government positions, using them for all kinds of shady business, including the hunt for Radix.
38	* GrailInTheGarbage: Not really garbage, since Prince Zaki's collection of mummies is pretty expensive, but he has no idea that one of them contains the Radix.
39	* HealingFactor: [[spoiler:After being resurrected by the Radix, Brynstone's daughter gets this.]]
40	* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Cesare Borgia is depicted even more sinister than he was. Also applies to Borgia family in general, since they are still active as villains.
41	* HollywoodEncryption: Coded messages play a significant part in the story, depicted verbosely, but not very realistically.
42	* HostageForMacGuffin: Metzger does this to Brynstone's wife and daughter.
43	* INeverSaidItWasPoison: Hunting for Wurm, Adriana Borjia interrogates Cori. After Cori says "I didn't see him", Adrianna smiles and says: "I never said the patient was a man"
44	* {{Infodump}}: The author is too eager to [[ShownTheirWork show his work]], sometimes slowing the story down to a halt to tell the readers something about history, cryptography, religious studies or psychology.
45	* InformedAbility: Wurm is supposed to be a cryptography genius, having cracked the code of the Voynich manuscript. However, he can't decrypt a trivial [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scytale Scytale]] cipher.
46	* KindaBusyHere: During a dangerous car chase, Brynstone gets a call from wife who wants to tell him their daughter said her first word.
47	* LikeASonToMe: Delgado treats Brynstone like this. See also [[spoiler:ManipulativeBastard]].
48	* LittlestCancerPatient: Subverted. Andrea Starr, a pretty 4 year old girl with spastic cerebral palsy, is mentioned in the beginning. Since the focus of the story is a search for {{Panacea}}, you could expect her to play some role in it. However, she's never mentioned again.
49	* LukeIAmYourFather: Played with. The fact that [[spoiler:Edgar Wurm is Adriana Borgia's father]] comes as a surprise for the reader, but both characters have known it from the beginning.
50	* MacGuffin: DismantledMacGuffin kind. The Radix is a magical plant that belonged to Jesus Christ and is supposed to work as a {{Panacea}}. However, to use it properly you also need the Scintilla — a recipe to cook it properly.
51	* MacGuffinTitle: The Radix.
52	* MadArtist: The Knight paints scenes of death of the Christian martyrs using unwilling models. "Pain was beautiful. It inspired him."
53	* MadScientist: Edgar Wurm, a cryptoanalysist who managed to decode the Voynich manuscript, but in the process went mad and became obsessed with the Radix.
54	* ManipulativeBastard: [[spoiler:General Delgado is a competent officer and a father substitute for Brynstone. He's also a Knight of Malta manipulating Brynstone, the government and Catolic Church to get the Radix and trade it for the place of the order's grand master. And, by the way, it was him who killed Brynstone's father.]]
55	* ManOfWealthAndTaste: General Delgado collects art and loves good wine.
56	* MasterOfDisguise: Metzger is constantly changing his appearance.
57	* MistakenForMurderer: After Cori runs from the asylum hit by Borgias, she hears from radio that she is the suspected murderer.
58	* MockGuffin: A fake Radix made by Wurm.
59	* MoleInCharge: [[spoiler:Delgado]]. Later we find out that he's not the only Knight of Malta in the government.
60	* MoralEventHorizon: Erich Metzger started his career as a hitman by killing his own mother.
61	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Erich Metzger's surname means "Butcher".
62	* ObfuscatingInsanity: Cori's backstory. She was put into the asylum as a part of an experiment, to see if doctors can tell a sane person from a mad. She also fakes insanity when she first meets Adriana Borgia, to pose as a harmless lunatic.
63	* {{Panacea}}: Radix. It may also be an ImmortalityInducer.
64	* PoeticSerialKiller: Erich Metzger is known to kill his victims in a way related to the reason they are killed. Santiago Rojas once fed a woman to insects alive, so Metzger, hired by her children, does the same to him. Later he [[spoiler:kills the Knight who collected art and tortured people to use as models for his own paintings. Metzger makes a bonfire of his collection and burns the Knight on it.]]
65	* PoirotSpeak: Metzger speaks English well, but loves to drop a "Ja". Nicolette Bettenncourt also delivers spades of lines in French, form "Qui" to "Putain!".
66	* PosthumousCharacter: Ariel Cassidy, Cori's mother, plays a role in the story despite being dead.
67	* ProfessionalKiller: Erich Metzger.
68	* PyroManiac: Metzger's assistant called Franca. We only see her in one scene and know she's this from his lone remark.
69	* QuirkyMinibossSquad: While Cesare Borgia was a real BigBad, modern Borgias are no more than this.
70	* RobbingTheDead: Downplayed. One of the asylum's guards is eating a cake he bought for two bucks since someone ordered it, but never picked it up. On the cake's frosting there are words: "Happy Ninety-first Birthday Uncle Fred". Guard's only comment is "His loss is my gain". [[spoiler:Which makes said guard's deacpitation by Borgias a pathetic kind of KarmicDeath.]]
71	* RoomFullOfCrazy: Wurm's room in the asylum is a highly artistic kind of this, with replicas of Leonardo's paintings made of words.
72	* SadisticChoice: Brynstone encounters this during his showdown with Metzger. There are two people wanting the Radix he has. One is holding his daughter hostage, another has his wife.
73	* SecretUndergroundPassage: There are two: one in Prince Zaki's residence, another in Carl Jung's castle.
74	* SerialKiller: The Knight [[spoiler:aka Delgado]].
75	* SolveTheSoupCans: Carl Jung's castle is full of ridiculously complex puzzles.
76	* StartOfDarkness: Mezger's backstory.
77	* TakeOurWordForIt: For a long time the Radix is not described, only the awed faces and expressions of people looking on it.
78	* TheDogBitesBack: The Knight's plans are foiled by a bum who saw him kidnapping Andy and told Bitonti.
79	* TheMole: [[spoiler:Brynstone's assistant Jordan Rayne is working for a CorruptCorporateExecutive from Taft-Ryder Pharmaceuticals.]]
80	* TheWatson: Cori Cassidy, to Edgar Wurm.
81	* TreasureChestCavity: The Radix was hidden inside a mummy's chest. Bonus points: though it didn't resurrect the mummy, while being stored inside it, Radix made its dead tissues regenerate and bleed.
82	* VillainDecay: In-story. Borgias used to be a strong political force and are still feared as such. [[spoiler:Turns out that modern Borgias are little more than thugs for hire, working for Jordan Rayne.]]
83	* VillainWithGoodPublicity: [[spoiler:General Delgado.]]
84	* WickedCultured: The Knight (aka [[spoiler:General Delgado]]).
85	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:Jordan Rayne is killed right after she hands (fake) Radix to Taft-Ryder Pharmaceutical's agent.]]

Context Literature / TheRadix