A timely and often intense page-turner.
In Papantonio’s latest legal thriller in a series, attorney Nick “Deke” Deketomis investigates crimes committed by a pharmaceutical firm.
In this series entry, following Suspicious Activity (2024, with Christopher Paulos), Deke’s old college friend, recently fired lawyer Matt Redmond, brings a new case to the Deketomis firm. Matt’s cousin, Amy Redmond, is the president of the massive pharma corporation EirePharma, and she’s prepared to come forward as a whistleblower against her fiancé, who also happens to be her company’s CEO: Connor Devlin, a shady businessman who took over the company shortly after the previous owner, Matt’s Uncle Charles, apparently died by suicide. She suspects that Connor’s involved in fraud—specifically, activities that have resulted in a rise in the price of insulin. Matt asserts that Connor “runs the business like a mobster disguised as a Harvard-educated MBA,” and he suspects that he wouldn’t be above killing to get what he wants. The Deketomis firm has recently been exploring class-action lawsuits involving insulin manufacturers, so Deke knows it will be a tough fight; however, he’s willing to take on the case and see how deep the corruption goes—and to protect Amy, who may very well be in mortal danger. It’s clear that Papantonio’s latest legal thriller is inspired by real-life crimes committed by pharmacy benefit managers, and this gives this story added appeal and cultural relevance. It’s a suspenseful and often gripping tale. While this does make for an easy read, the dialogue is sometimes unrealistically loaded with exposition, especially in the first few chapters: “I will admit my ask is not exactly a simple one. First protect Amy, uncover the truth about this bastard, and if you can get my family’s pharma business back intact, that would be an extraordinary result.” Little is left up to interpretation, which give the work the feel of a TV detective show, complete with a ripped-from-the headlines plot; still, it’s a well-paced read.
A timely and often intense page-turner.Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781648211058
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Arcade
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Soapy, suspenseful fun.
A remembered horror plunges a pregnant woman into a waking nightmare.
Tegan Werner, 23, barely recalls her one-night stand with married real estate developer Simon Lamar; she only learns Simon’s name after seeing him on the local news five months later. Simon wants nothing to do with the resulting child Tegan now carries and tells his lawyer to negotiate a nondisclosure agreement. A destitute Tegan is all too happy to trade her silence for cash—until a whiff of Simon’s cologne triggers a memory of him drugging and raping her. Distraught and eight months pregnant, Tegan flees her Lewiston, Maine, apartment and drives north in a blizzard, intending to seek comfort and counsel from her older brother, Dennis; instead, she gets lost and crashes, badly injuring her ankle. Tegan is terrified when hulking stranger Hank Thompson stops and extricates her from the wreck, and becomes even more so when he takes her to his cabin rather than the hospital, citing hazardous road conditions. Her anxiety eases somewhat upon meeting Hank’s wife, Polly—a former nurse who settles Tegan in a basement hospital room originally built for Polly’s now-deceased mother. Polly vows to call 911 as soon as the phones and power return, but when that doesn’t happen, Tegan becomes convinced that Hank is forcing Polly to hold her prisoner. Tegan doesn’t know the half of it. McFadden unspools her twisty tale via a first-person-present narration that alternates between Tegan and Polly, grounding character while elevating tension. Coincidence and frustratingly foolish assumptions fuel the plot, but readers able to suspend disbelief are in for a wild ride. A purposefully ambiguous, forward-flashing prologue hints at future homicide, establishing stakes from the jump.
Soapy, suspenseful fun.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227325
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre.
A medical student is assigned an overnight shift to observe a Long Island hospital’s psychiatric ward and help with emergencies. You’d never guess what happens next.
Amy Brenner isn’t even interested in psychiatry, the one medical specialty she’s never considered for her own career. Nor is she interested any more in Cameron Berger, the classmate who ended their relationship so that he could spend more time studying, and she’s not pleased to learn that he’s switched his rotation with another student so he can spend some of the next 13 hours persuading Amy to rekindle their romance. Predictably, Cam will be the least of Amy’s troubles. Apart from Dr. Richard Beck and nurse Ramona Dutton, everyone else on Ward D is much more dangerous, from elderly Mary Cummings, whose knitting needles aren’t plastic but sharpened steel, to William Schoenfeld, who’s stopped taking the medications that were supposed to silence the voices telling him to kill people, to Damon Sawyer, who’s confined in Seclusion One and can’t possibly escape, unless a power outage neutralizes the locks. Most threatening of all is Jade Carpenter, whose close friendship with Amy ended eight years ago when Amy turned her in for what ended up being only one of a whole series of thrill crimes. McFadden measures out the complications, revelations, and betrayals with such an expert hand that readers anxiously trying to figure out whom Amy can trust as her goal shifts from ticking off a toilsome requirement to surviving the night may well end up wondering whom they can trust themselves. And isn’t provoking that kind of paranoia what medical thrillers are all about?
A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre.Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227271
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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