Hybrid Hysteria — A Novel of Corporate Intrigue Both Holy and Diabolical , won the 2023 CIBA International Thriller Grand Prize. Clued in by a young university colleague, a priest/scientist suspects that an automobile company is using its lithium batteries to selectively sterilize liberals. A secret international group, aided by his mob-boss uncle, helps him uncover the truth. He is an amalgam of the Shoes of the Fisherman and James Bond . POLITICAL HYSTERIA : The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating significant unexplained increases in infertility and miscarriages in the Northeast United States and the West Coast. These areas are experiencing a population decline, in contrast to the increases found down South or in the Heartland. The decline has caused great angst among governors in the affected areas, and in the party controlling Congress and the Presidency. B UYING HYSTERIA : Combined rule-making and tax breaks have spurred unprecedented runs on electric and hybrid automobiles in these states. This is especially true for vehicles made by the Gauss Hybrid Electric Car Company. S AFETY CONCERNS: Reports from Africa are downplayed that describe sterility in child miners who slave to extract ore for the rare magnetic mineral used by GHEA’s unique "flux-capacitor” car batteries. PERSONAL CONCERNS: Dr. Theresa Lauzon, endowed assistant professor at SUNY-Canton’s Department of Automotive Engineering, unexpectedly finds herself pregnant. Because of her preliminary research, she worries that, by working with the GHEA batteries, she is putting her baby at risk. She asks: CAN ELECTRIC VEHICLES STERILIZE THEIR OWNERS? Lauzon comes to Fr. Charlie “CC” Cavanaugh, university Chaplain and physics PhD professor, with two troubling revelations. First, while testing an electric car donated by GHEA, she’d discovered troubling spikes in its battery’s electromagnetic field. By a series of conjectures, she connects these spikes to a rash of infertility and miscarriages along the Pacific coast, where GHEA cars have boomed in popularity. Second, Theresa is pregnant, and the father is GHEA’s technician-on-loan to SUNY-Canton, Jay Fish. Fish recently hastily left the university and has disappeared. SPIRITUAL CONCERNS : As a priest, Fr. Cavanaugh has moral reservations as he enters this world of secrecy and danger. Every person he brings into his confidence quickly finds a target painted on their back. Cavanaugh worries about the actions his favorite uncle, Tony, a rules-bending mob boss, takes to aid the search for truth. Amidst careful investigation and deadly family ties, criminal factions and covert organizations wage war through knowledge and spy-craft. Multiple perspectives reveal new sides of each conspiracy as it begins to unravel. Behind the scenes, corporate executives and other actors from shadow groups each pursue their own agendas. Unraveling these mysteries requires wisdom and tenacity. The detectives are a young, inquisitive yet naïve female professor and a handsome, well-seasoned university chaplain who teaches physics. Helping with the fight is the chaplain’s Uncle Tony, and GHEA’s administrative secretary, a statuesque former Army Ranger, who ultimately finds herself needing to play the role of a Delilah. The mix gives readers a thriller that will take them through many diabolical twists and angelic turns, especially when an unknown, long-lost, and near-death relative is found who turns the plot narrative on its head and solves a legal quagmire!