This book is on my Amazon shopping list. Can you recommend a crash course for getting the requisite molecular background? I've been needing to get up to speed on that anyway ...

Can you recommend a crash course for getting the requisite molecular background?

uh, dude, i'm not the one to ask. i've never enjoyed the alphabet soup of structural shit you have to memorize in molecular genetics (though it is preferable to the stuff in developmental genetics, where different groups of researchers who use different model organisms can't even figure out how to agree on a lot of basic terminology from what i recall). but you can read some of the stuff free here with registration:
http://www.ergito.com/index.jsp

i have a copy of a molecular biology of the gene which serves me well, though it is probably a little out of date now. but re: lynch's book, for the molecular genetics isn't really that hairy. i haven't tripped over much and like i said i tend to dump a lot of molecular genetic detail cuz it bores me so much. i just think that someone who is a lay person will have a much harder time starting from 0 on this then r.a. fisher's genetical theory, even though fisher is tough going the book is more detailed elaboration on a few general concepts which he defines. lynch basically seems to assume that his audience has taken some molecular genetics courses or done research in this area. e.g., he doesn't lay out why RNA splicing is important and how it works, he just assumes you know and then talks about how it relates to population genetics & genomics.