The benefits of this briskly entertaining, if sometimes-familiar, debut outweigh the risks.
In Essay’s courtroom drama, an attorney whose career is on the rise faces off against a powerful pharmaceutical company.
Claire Hewitt is a new partner at the Philadelphia law firm of Blackman & Bradford, and she’s been made first chair in a case that could make or break her career. Wealthy Clifford and Margo Satori are accusing Novo Analgesic Systems, one of the nation’s largest pharmaceutical companies, of medical negligence in the opioid death of their teenage daughter, Emma. The case is personal for Claire, who’s still haunted by the opioid death of her beloved younger sister. The Satoris want vengeance, and so does Claire: “A new revenge,” she declares. “A revenge called justice.” She’s paired with Alec Marshall, “the firm’s prodigy,” and harbors insecurities that any setbacks in the case will be blamed on “a female partner who’s not quite ready to run with the big boys.” However, she impressively takes on a formidable array of courtroom combatants, including the company’s in-house counsel, its slippery CEO, and a team of doctors with varying degrees of fidelity to the Hippocratic oath—as well as an obstinate judge. Readers won’t find very much that’s new in this thriller’s depiction of the devastation wrought by opioids and Big Pharma, which, in recent years, has become a ubiquitous villain in fiction. As such, revelations of corruption, conspiracy, and murder are unsurprising developments, although there’s no denying that the prescription drug industry remains a potent adversary. Fans of the courtroom-drama genre will even recognize an exchange from A Few Good Men (“Are we clear?” “Crystal”). However, Essay knows her way around this material and has clearly done her research on aspects of the opioid epidemic. Also, Claire and Alec make a good team, and readers will likely want to see them take on more cases.
The benefits of this briskly entertaining, if sometimes-familiar, debut outweigh the risks.Pub Date: July 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781647427047
Page Count: 352
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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