Fatal Flaw by S P Murphy (Susan Murphy)

 

I received a free copy of this book and my thanks to the author and the team of BookSirens for the copy. 

All views expressed in this review are my own and based on my reading of this book. Some of the initial comments were made as I progressed in this book and I have not tried editing them as it expresses my contiguous thoughts as I proceeded with the story.

Book Blurb

IN 1978 the first of 5 million babies was born using IVF technology - and now they're dying…

What if medicine’s greatest achievement was also its most deadly – and its most profitable?

In the 20th century mankind discovered controversial new ways to create life but now a wave of mysterious deaths is suddenly sweeping across America.

Is it God’s plan? An outcome of medical experimentation that was always possible? Or something even more sinister?

Notorious LA detective Dominic Santino is desperate to stay out of the public gaze but the unexplained death of a friend’s nephew drags him into the most puzzling and lethal investigation of his chequered career.

Despite his reputation for solving the most difficult cases, the seasoned detective is baffled by a trail of seemingly-healthy victims. With no apparent evidence of criminal foul play, Santino enlists the help of a renowned geneticist, the intriguing Dr. Arnya Sloane.

With the body count rising, Santino and Sloane race against time to stop the media, Big Pharma and the FBI from burying the truth along with the mounting dead.

With 5 million lives in the balance, one family’s private misery provides the crucial clue that links all the deaths – but is it too late?

A relentless cop and a brilliant doctor are thrown together by powerful forces and an old enemy in this page-turning thriller about giving life, taking life and getting rich at any cost.

Fatal Flaw by S P Murphy (Susan Murphy)

The epilogue in this book sums of most of what is good and bad in this book. A satisfactory conclusion to medical mayhem is marred by an act which does not provide anything additional to the story. If the objective of Susan the author of this piece was to shock the reader then it was a bit too late in the book, If it was to ensure that the reader has a remembrance which would be discussed, maybe shared with friends and social media either in support or in dissent; then maybe I see some point.

But I still feel that the overall story matters rather than any one particular scene and shocks work to help a story to the next level. If it has no correlation then it seems pointless almost a byline.

Fatal Flaw is a medical thriller that tries to tread hallowed grounds prepared by masters like Robin Cook, Michael Palmer and Michael Crichton. The cover and the book blurb ticks the right boxes with the story ticking some more -

1. A World renowned and venerated procedure - IVF

2. A shock to its foundations - IVF kids are dying

3. An involvement of Big Pharma - capitalist goals or conspiracy &

4. A Hero - desperate cop looking for payback.

5. A Government machinery that keeps trying to bury the story.

The book has it all, all the above and more with a well spun moving story basically with all elements for a blockbuster but with a Fatal Flaw...

The flaw that transforms this book into a Category B thriller, 3 star to 3.5 stars.

Lets delve into the details. This is my first book with Susan a brand new author for me and I am a sucker for Medical, Legal and Techno thrillers. These are the top three for me and I have been reading the best fiction available relentlessly, so when an ARC was available, I pounced on the chance, delayed because I had another as my backlog.

The name and by lines intrigued me and the book starts with a bang. An athlete preparing for a marathon drops dead and a heavily alcoholic Police Captain calls up his subordinate detective and mentee in the middle of the night to voice suspicions about another recent death, his nephew also from the dept. who dropped dead too.

Our hero Santino starts a below the radar investigation initially as a way to humor his mentor/boss and opens a can of worms when he starts coordinating with the Medical Examiners office. A series of unexplained deaths strewn all over and the mystery deepens.

The story slows down with a lot of explanations and discussions and a lot of angst and discussion about the angst related to the IVF industry and the medical fraternity. The outbursts reach religious levels with the Church and organizations from the church fraternity being thrown into the equation mostly to vilify the IVF industry with a lot of pros and cons discussed by the protagonists. This part of the story should not have been dwelt on too much and one gets the feeling as if the author has an angst against the industry as well.

The well chosen topic about the business and business interests of IVF falls by the wayside and the story gets sidelined. A tighter first half was required but once the reader crosses this hurdle the rest of the story moves at great speed and a foregone conclusion.

The reader would not feel cheated on completing this book and for most part it leaves good vibes.

What works for the story is the central characters of Santino and Sloane, the reader is invested in them. Sloane's story required little more polish and meat.

The story per se is a good one considering the various negative aspects of pharma that we read and hear about in the news. The considerable amount of money in healthcare and the billions spent on developing products are general information which help this story giving it the plausibility it requires. The knee jerk reaction by the govt. and its arms like the FBI and the CDC here, the latter only written in this story while the former has a face and is participating in the story; is something that we have seen and heard during the Covid pandemic with global bodies like WHO caught on the wrong foot, principals like Fauci vilified. So here too the reaction process seems a par for the course.

What doesn't work is the continuous set pieces that form the story. Everything falls in place too easily, whether it is jumping to the conclusion for IVF, the villainous pharma, corrupt officials, paid heavies who are directly linked to the head of the pharma company.

For such a large country all action is happening close to Santino's area with all the villains from that location. We do not get the national feel that this kind of horror would bring especially when the bodies start tumbling all over. Santino is a detective and Sloane is a super intelligent researcher but neither of them talk about the leak of information, never double guessing their own actions, always trying to lay it on departmental informants.

Reading this story makes one feel that the entire police department, ME's office, literally everybody in govt. is on the take. This despite the fact that the Pharma lead Fitzgerald was just exonerated from a murder case which means he should have been in and out of custody for a long time and his father just dead, means that he would not have a lot of control of his company because of absence and a distance that must have been created by his father to protect the company from a possible felon. But Fitzgerald does not seem to have any issues and acts like a mafia lord, although even the Mafia bosses take the help of third party to ensure plausible deniability.

This sows a discord to the overall tale and for a thinking man this would not be palatable.

On the overall story front, the character build up of Santino is well fleshed out but for some of the others including Sloane leaves a lot unsaid and untold. This prevents the reader from understanding motives and actions of the characters. The connections between characters are left unsaid like Sloane's engagement. In the overall context of the story and actions of the characters some actions like why a medicine baron needs to dirty his hand and why allow himself to be confronted by one man. Snuffing out someone is not difficult especially for a billionaire so why wade into the dirt.

The IVF angle occurs to both the lead character almost simultaneously and the question that comes is why has no one else jumped to the conclusion if it was so plausible.

Fatal Flaw provides the reader with a lot of good moments and personally the book was one of the better ones I have read recently but when considered as a representative of its vertical, the Medical Thriller it falls short.

3.5 Stars for me. I would still recommend this book as a decent reading especially in the holidays and I reserve my judgement for Susan's books as I feel that this book was a par for the course but she could have done so much better with this one. I will definitely read another of her books to see if she exceeds her potential as a writer.

Recommended.

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https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5187387172