MIRACLE CURE
By Michael Palmer
Bantam, $23.95
Imagine a new drug that reverses hardened arteries without causing dangerous side effects. Sound too good to be true? Of course it is, but part of the fun of Michael Palmer’s latest thriller is finding out what sinister consequences the prestigious Boston Heart Institute is so desperately hiding. That task is left to Dr. Brian Holbrook, a once-promising cardiologist who got caught writing multiple painkiller prescriptions for himself and had his license to practice revoked.
As the book opens, Holbrook–who is rehabilitated and working at a car-rental agency–is given a second chance by the director of the hospital. Holbrook soon finds himself working at the clinic where Vasclear, the miracle cure for arteriosclerosis, is being tested. But Holbrook has more than a professional interest in the drug: His father has serious heart problems and may die if he cannot get into the test group for the medication. In an intriguing plot twist, Holbrook begins stealing small quantities of Vasclear from the hospital for his father, who appears to be getting worse. When two other patients who had made astonishing progress under the drug die unexpectedly, Holbrook suspects a coverup but has to proceed carefully or lose his right to practice forever. With the help of a sexy official from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Holbrook begins to cut through the layers of greed and deceit that cover the truth.
Palmer has a talent for crisp plotting, and his characters, while never particularly deep, are vivid, believable creations who help turn this into a highly entertaining tale of greed and medicine run amok.
THE TATTOO MURDER CASE
By Akimitsu Takagi, translated by Deborah Boliver Boehm
Soho Press, $23
It’s not often there’s a chance to review a thriller originally published more than 50 years ago, but then everything about this book is unusual. First published in Japan in 1947, “The Tattoo Murder Case” has a spectacularly ghoulish beginning: The dismembered body of Kinue Nomura, daughter of a famed tattoo artist, is found in the locked bathroom of her house by her lover, Kenzo Matsushita. All that’s left of the woman are her limbs and head; missing is her torso, upon which an elaborate tattoo had been placed by her father. Kenzo calls his brother, a chief inspector for the Tokyo police, but all the suspects–including the woman’s jealous husband and a local professor known as Dr. Tattoo–have alibis. Eventually the inspector calls in a friend of Kenzo’s, a “boy genius” who solves the murder.
An ingenious creation with elements of mysteries and thrillers, “The Tattoo Murder Case” is a treat for readers tired of drug dealers and conspiracies.
HIGH CRIMES
By Joseph Finder
Morrow, $24.95
Whenever we meet a character whose life appears to be perfect, it’s safe to assume that person’s world will soon be crashing down. And that’s exactly what happens to Harvard law professor Claire Heller Chapman by Page 12 of this powerhouse tale.
As she is leaving a restaurant with her husband, Tom, and their daughter, a cloud of federal agents descend on Tom and try to arrest him for murder. A wild fight and chase ensue, with Tom getting away and Claire left behind to learn that her husband is wanted for the massacre of 87 people in a tiny village outside San Salvador 13 years earlier, when he was part of the U.S. Army’s Special Forces unit. Despite strong government evidence, Claire can’t believe the accusations against Tom. After his capture, she gets the help of a lawyer who knows the ins and outs of military law, and together they defend Tom at his court-martial.
Part of what separates this thriller from the pack is Joseph Finder’s willingness to explore the tensions that develop between husband and wife. After all, here’s a woman who not only finds out that everything she thinks she knows about her spouse is a lie, but that he may have been responsible for a brutal atrocity. Charles Grimes, her colleague in defending Tom, is also a vivid creation, and the interaction of these three characters kicks this thriller into high gear.
THE HUNT CLUB
By Bret Lott
Villard, $23
Macabre beginnings seem to be the rule for this month’s choices. Fifteen-year-old Huger Dillard is helping his blind uncle Leland lead a deer hunt when they find a local doctor lying in the woods with his head cut off and his hands skinned. Placed on the body is a crudely scrawled note from the doctor’s wife claiming responsibility for the murder and a question directed to Huger’s uncle: “Leland, can you blame me?” Thus begins a spare, harsh tale of greed and secrets that will send Huger and his uncle through the backroads and hills of South Carolina as they discover the reasons for the murder. Huger soon learns that his uncle is the target of a plot to take over the family’s land.
Best known for his Faulkner-like portraits of family life, Bret Lott has created an emotionally charged thriller that places the reader in the labyrinth of the human heart, where such qualities as devotion, greed, love and dishonesty stand out with near-terrifying clarity.
THE UNCANNY
By Andrew Klavan
Crown, $24
Richard Storm is a Hollywood producer of ghost stories who decides to give up the money and glamor of the movies and go to Britain to find some real ghosts. Of course, it doesn’t take long for him to hook up with a psychic old woman who runs a magazine called Bizarre! and fall in love with a beautiful young woman who is threatened by visitors from the spirit world.
The plot is more cryptic than a magic spell, but suffice it to say that this tale of demons and the paranormal–as seen through the eyes of a Hollywood producer–is somehow both gripping and funny. I don’t know what possessed Andrew Klavan to attempt a modern ghost story, but the results are exhilarating.
