Elderly Cascadian mushroom hunter Edna Morton has a health issue. She has sprouted a feather on her chest. A trip to a health clinic brings her to the attention of an aggressive and ambitious physician, Dr. Theodora Band. Is there something in the mushrooms of Cascadia that activates human DNA? Why now? Why Edna?

Edna knows which mushrooms could put an end to Dr. Band but she’d rather look at her family history to see if this has happened before. Could those stories of witches and toadstools be aspects of evolutionary development?

This is the story line of The EvoAngel, a “mushroom thriller” by Ellen King Rice that is set in the Pacific Northwest. The book includes eighteen pen and ink illustrations of local fungi by Olympia artist Duncan Sheffels and incorporates many details of how bodies respond to changes in the environment. The EvoAngel recently received an Honorable Mention at the San Francisco Book Festival and has garnered strong reviews on Amazon.com. The EvoAngel is for sale on Amazon.com, at Orca Books and Browser Books in Olympia, and Village Books in Bellingham, or ask for it at your local book store! You can learn more about Ellen and the sciences of epigenetics and evolutionary development at her website http://www.ellenkingrice.com

Ellen also invites everyone to join her in investigating weird fungal facts on Facebook during Mushroom Tuesdays at https://www.facebook.com/mushroomthriller

Thank you to Ellen King Rice for this contribution to our featured book series and to the CascdiaNow! blog. Would you like to contribute? Email bethany@cascadianow.org NOW!