Addiction
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Amnesia, G.H. Ephron's acclaimed debut, introduced forensic neuropsychologist and expert defense witness Dr. Peter Zak. Returning in Addiction, Peter is back in the thick of things at the Pearce Psychiatric Center, coping with patients as well as everyday average administrative nightmares at the hospital, like budgetary concerns, construction, and colleagues' drug trials. And then the worst nightmare of all-the murder of a colleague.
Such an event, if it weren't devastating enough, rekindles Peter's memories of the murder of his wife, which left Peter emotionally shattered and isolated; he's only recently begun to emerge. But he can't retreat this time; he must use his expertise to help reconstruct this baffling and intensely personal killing.
Peter discovers his friend and former lover, Pearce psychiatrist Channing Temple, dead from a gunshot wound on hospital grounds. Her 16-year-old daughter Olivia is standing over the body, holding a gun. Did Olivia, who has been abusing Ritalin and other drugs, kill her mother? Peter thinks not, but she is quickly arraigned for murder, and he has only two weeks to find the killer before Olivia is sent to prison.
In this tense and compelling second installment in a highly lauded series, the talented writing team known as G.H. Ephron tackles the dangers and misconceptions surrounding addiction...and the chaos of murder.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Some books grow on you. They start off in a leisurely style that just barely holds your interest but never quite gives you an excuse to quit entirely when, inexplicably, you find yourself increasingly interested in who and what's going on. If it's a good book, like Ephron's second Peter Zaks mystery (after 2000's Amnesia), you wind up thoroughly satisfied. Zaks, a forensic psychologist, works at the Pearce Psychiatric Institute, a place of many secrets and much intrigue involving drug research. Fame and fortune await the researcher who publishes first, and some will do anything to avoid being nice guys. In this case, there are two drugs designed to alleviate chronic addiction: one, the hope of a rich pharmaceutical company, the other, the work of an independent researcher, Channing Temple, a former lover of Zaks. When Temple is murdered, her 16-year-old, Ritalin-addicted daughter, Olivia, is caught standing by the body with a gun in her hand. Did Olivia kill her mother? The police would like to think so. Zaks doubts it, and wants to save the kid from both the police and her own bent for self-destruction. A low-key style, a large cast of well-drawn characters, comprehensible medical jargon, as well as a credible solution intelligently arrived at all add up to a fine novel that should entertain both mystery and medical thriller fans. FYI:Ephron is the pseudonym of journalist Halle Ephron and forensic psychologist Don Davidoff.
