The Dalius Cure

by Mason Black

Have you ever wondered why there is still no cure for cancer, despite millions of dollars being spent every year on research?
Deep in the jungles of Brazil, a brilliant young doctor, Dennis Parker, searches for a natural cure for cancer. Employed and funded by one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, the Brennan-Finewayne Drug Company, Dr. Parker is running out of money and time. Dr. Parker settles in Manaus, Brazil after hearing of rumors of a tribal woman known as the “Life Giver” who is able to heal sick people. With the help of Archie Talus, a mysterious British man, the two men track down the “Life Giver" and find the cure for cancer.
Unknown to Dr. Parker and Archie, the Brennan-Finewayne Drug Company is part of a powerful secret organization made up of ten international companies known as the Council. The Council’s main goal is to prevent a cure for cancer from being found in order to guarantee there will always be customers for their drugs. When the Council learns of Parker's cure, they attempt to destroy the cure and kill everyone who knows of it.
Luckily, Archie Talus and Pete Chambers know of the cure. With a motley crew assembled, including Colombian drug cartel members, a prosecutor, a former MI-6 agent, a stripper, and an aspiring Rabbi, they devise the perfect plan to get the cure back at all costs and deliver it to the world

273 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 6, 2012

Reviews

[Jim Parish · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not finish this book; I quit at about 30%. The book is in need of serious, and I mean serious, editing. In addition to numerous spelling, grammatical, and punctuation errors, the book also needs content editing. I didn't actually begin noting items until I was 10 or 15% in, and when I finally gave up, I had 22 notes in my Kindle. Following are a several examples:

Narrative is 3rd person past, but "Parker pulls a mosquito off his neck."

"...to mail Parker's affects." Quite difficult to accomplish. Mailing Parker's effects would be much easier.

"...he thought that Manny was passed that." The word is "past". This error was repeated.

"He had one of the top criminal attorney's in Miami." The dreaded apostrophe-s pluralization error. Isn't this basic English?

"As Pete hung up the phone, he saw Archie walking down the hall. It had been many years since Archie has someone trying to kill him." How in the world do these two sentences belong in the same paragraph, let alone next to each other.

" We have to expose them for what they,' Archie said, hoping this would spark him." Well, it certainly sparked me!

"...Agent White who was smoking a cigarette on the porch. In actuality, Agent White was the furthest thing from being white. He was a very dark African-American man with a rather slim build." I was speechless when I read this. Which was natural, since I don't read aloud to myself. Had I being reading aloud, though, I still would have been speechless.

More about Agent White: "Manny sat on the porch with Agent White smoking in unison. It had been a long tradition of Manny's to start the day with a Marlboro." I envision Manny and Agent White lifting cigarettes to mouth, inhaling together, lowering arms and exhaling simultaneously, tapping the ash into their ashtrays at the same time...like the Weeki Wachi Mermaids of smoking. Write "smoking together" instead, or better yet, just delete "in unison". Further, I think a daily morning cigarette does not rise to the level of tradition, but rates merely as a habit.

There's more, much more. But I think I've said enough. With serious editing, this story might reach a 3 star rating. Maybe.

[Dan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried, I really did. The premise was interesting and I generally like medical thrillers. But the poor quality writing, inane dialogue and just general lack of any logic in the flow of the story had me giving up about a third of the way through. The author's lack of command of basic grammar (using "the" and "a" before nouns is apparently too much work to remember to do on a regular basis) and innumerable mondegreens (my last sentence I could deal with was when he asserted that a "bullet had just braised her arm") made it too much of a strain to continue.

[Lorraine Versini]

Did not finish. Did want to like it, but it's just not relaxing to read. It's short sentence after short sentence (one or two lines each time), barely any descriptions, or too general. Gave up at chapter 7, after "the lab" was mentioned five or six times in the same page.

This was the death of it for me: "Minutes later, Archie drove down the dirt road toward the mobile lab. He was unaware that it was on fire. A strong wind swept behind him as he accelerated his Kawasaki. The rain began to fall as the wind picked up. A torrential downpour began - Archie could barely see where he was going. Luckily he was only a few miles away from the lab. He slid into the sludge that formed in front of the lab.[next paragraph] "What the hell?" He saw the lab was smoldering. It was obvious to him that it had recently been on fire. He quickly ran inside the lab."

I'm sorry, I do enjoy medical thrillers, and if I enjoy the story, I'm more than tolerant of bloopers. But I can't go on for another 400 pages struggling like I did in the first 20.

[Chrissy (The Every Free Chance Reader)]

Where I stopped reading: Page 100

Why I stopped reading: The story was intriguing, but the spelling, grammatical, and punctuation errors drove me to distraction. Black makes some seriously odd language choices (the characters either “yell” or “shout” almost every line of dialogue), and I couldn’t get past them. I would definitely consider re-reading this book after a round of some serious editing.

What others have rated this book: According to Goodreads, the average rating for The Dalius Cure is 2.75. It looks like a majority of readers gave this book either 4 stars or 1 star. Those ratings are tied for the most. There were 14 5-star reviews on Amazon. Just because I didn’t finish this book doesn’t mean you may not.

As reviewed by Melissa at Every Free Chance Book Reviews.

(I received a copy of this book for review purposes.)

http://everyfreechance.com/2013/10/dn...

[Tom · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. I don't usually have problems reviewing a book, but this one is tough.

The story is a good one, and quite fitting for this time in our history. But the writing style is almost as if a kid in middle school wrote it. Character development (my prime requirement for a book to be good or excellent) is severely lacking. The characters seem one-dimensional. The book feels more like a Stephen Seagal action flick than a serious book. I almost gave up about a third of the way in, and I'd bet you will, too. So I'd advise spending your money on something better. This one is a loser.

[Jeanne Mccartney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable book. Unfortunately makes you think about why there are no cures for deadly diseases, even though millions od dollars are spent on research. There are many grammatical errors as well as typographical errors but the content makes up for it. The last 25% of the book keeps you riveted until you make it to the end.

[Den · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book ended very anticlimactic. However, I will say it makes you stop and question how true it is that big pharma has cures for AIDS, Cancer, etc and choose to make money instead of helping people. Unfortunately, the all mighty dollar does win out more then we would like it to.

[Iris Adorno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Reading

Characters well written. Plot realistic. What they did and how it was accomplished led to enjoyable reading. The interaction between characters were intense. Really enjoyable reading. Recommend you read it and judge for yourself.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story line was interesting, but writing was stilted with numerous grammatical errors.

[Kristine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great plot! Edge of your seat