Yale professor Dr. Edward Kender's father is undergoing chemotherapy when the supply of a critical accompanying drug suddenly runs out. Unwilling to accept the drug company's disingenuous excuse of production line problems, Dr. Kender hires private investigator Erin Pulask to prove there is something more sinister going on at Schiffer Hartwin’s manufacturing facility in Indiana. Pulaski uncovers a bombshell - Schiffer Hartwin’s intentional shortage is bringing in a windfall profit in excess of two billion dollars.
When a top Schiffer Hartwin’s employee shows up viciously murdered behind the U.S. headquarters, Sherlock and Savich are called in to lend a hand. The murder of a foreign national on federal land can only mean the German drug company has a secret of epic proportions.
Whoever wrote this blurb, really didn’t read the book. It appears like Dr. Edward Kender plays a big part in it, which is not the case. Though the plot really is about the greed of pharmaceutical companies. They don’t want to cure people, they want to make money, and more money. And how their lack of ethics is not punishable by law. They perhaps pay a fine, and continue as they wish.
Erin Pulask is a private investigator in the small town of Stone Bridge, Connecticut. When an old friend of her father asks her help in investigating the American branch of a German pharmaceutical plant, she cannot refuse. Her own father died of cancer three years ago, and now his father is dying too. And because the drug he needs so badly is not being made in sufficient quantities anymore, that is a worldwide problem. Patients will be forced to use a much more expensive one, which they won’t be able to afford for long.
Erin finds the plans to shut down the plants and how they will explain everything in the computer of the CEO, mr Caskie Royal. When he arrives unexpectedly with his latest ladyfriend and collegue Erin is almost trapped. But she escapes with the papers through the bathroom window. Now they can go to the press with their evidence. But unfortunately, on the news the next morning is the discovery of the body of a man in the park she escaped through last night, and it is tied to the break in! If she comes forward now, the police will think she killed that man! What is she to do?
And then the same FBI officer she just saw on the news rings her doorbell. How has he found her out that soon? Did someone see her after all? Fortunately, Bowie Richards is only asking her to take care of his little daughter Georgie, who is in her ballet class and really likes her. Her usual nanny is recovering from surgery, and he will be up to his neck in solving this murder case.
Dillon Savich and his wife and fellow FBI agent Lacey Sherlock are investigating the haunting of a senator when they are asked to help with the murdered foreigner on federal land in Connecticut. The local FBI agent in charge is not very experienced, but well acquainted with the people who matter. What is the pharmaceutical company hiding? They are even sending a German secret agent over to “help” with the investigation. The murdered man had a bad reputation as the company’s trouble shooter, and his name was linked to several accidents and disappearances worldwide, but of course without any evidence.
The FBI agents are trying to find out who he met or was planning on meeting, what the trouble was he was supposed to solve. But everyone is just lying through their teeth. The two bigwigs from the company come over from Germany. Their lawyers had a hard time keeping Caskie Royal from spilling the beans, and their hard hands are needed.
And when the CEO gets murdered in his own house, things are getting more and more murky.
Is it the same killer? And why was his wife left alive?
Sherlock figures things out, but to late, and now her life is in danger. But Erin and Bowie find her just in time and save her from the mad man.
The senator who is almost twice the victim of murder, is not so innocent as he appears. His wife is dead, and he is settling old grievances, while appearing the intended victim. Dillon knows this, but cannot prove it, till the last pages of the book.
I loved the story, very believable. It is a great series, with lots of suspense and romance mixed together. Erin and Bowie don’t even kiss in this book, or I read over it, but they are a great couple. And the little girl is adorable, and very precocious, more so then they realize.
The bits about Savich and Sherlock and their son Sean are great too, as always. A great plot, or two actually. Two storylines in one book.
I just hope I won’t have to wait this long for the next one.
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