The author continues his streak of engrossing medical tales with this winner.
This thriller proves that the cure can be more dangerous than the disease.
The soul of this latest medical tale by Bollinger (Satan Shoal, 2016, etc.) is Eric Carter. Eric heads the North Carolina–based lab for Tera Pharmagenics and is creating Fluzenta, the first universal flu vaccine. Eric has sacrificed much in Tera’s decadelong effort to bring Fluzenta to market. His wife, Kate, divorced him, marrying a local real estate agent. In addition, Eric doesn’t spend nearly enough time with his 8-year-old daughter, Ali. But it’s all about to pay off for Eric when the Food and Drug Administration approves Fluzenta. Only the FDA doesn’t. That’s when Eric’s orderly world collapses. The moral compass of Tera, Eric makes plans to appeal the FDA decision while trying to find an alternative use for the research that might keep the company afloat. Unfortunately, Frank Liles, Tera’s CEO, is feeling really pressured because he borrowed money from the wrong kind of investor. So, behind Eric’s back, Frank and Nicole Peters, one of the company’s senior research scientists, concoct an unscrupulous plan to create a demand for Fluzenta. The resulting epidemic gets Fluzenta quickly approved, but then deadly side effects appear. So Eric and Wally Moore, another senior scientist, race to find a cure for this new strain before more people die, including the protagonist’s beloved aunt. In this fast-paced tale, Bollinger does an admirable job highlighting how big pharma and the government often clash. Drug companies spend years and millions of dollars developing new medicine, seeking to meet stiff FDA regulations to protect the public. But in the end, it’s the sick who end up paying top dollar for those drugs that do get approved. In addition, the author skillfully focuses on Eric’s life inside and outside the office; the hero is a well-meaning man who finds himself wrestling with a life-threatening outbreak. Eric tries to maintain the semblance of a normal life, working to preserve his relationship with Ali and a bicoastal romance with Rae Thornton, another Tera executive. So it’s understandable that Nicole and Frank were able to pull off their scheme under his nose. Still, the appealing protagonist keeps struggling to find a way for his hard work and tough choices to benefit humanity.
The author continues his streak of engrossing medical tales with this winner.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9989975-0-6
Page Count: 364
Publisher: JNB Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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