Malcharist

by Paul John Scott

A closely-observed, panoramic thriller about medical science gone wrong, and the people who make dangerous pills seem safe. It’s Manhattan in the winter of 2010, and Shivani Patel is carrying the secrets of a trade that no one medical ghostwriting. A Cambridge-trained scientist and wordsmith for the world’s largest drugmaker, she makes her soaring pay by delivering the sleight-of-hand needed to move new drugs into journals and onto market. Then she watches as a parade of aging males take credit for her work. Halfway across the country, Griffin Wagner is slumming it in Minneapolis as a freelance reporter for In the Zone , a downmarket men’s magazine and his lifeline in the collapse of print. When fate leads both Shivani and Griffin to a problem with the world’s favorite pill and the celebrity psychiatrist who promoted it, Shivani’s powerful employers go to war with the three of them. A wild ride at the intersection of science, belief and mass media, Malcharist is a globe-traveling debut about lonely jobs, the seduction of brain chemistry narratives in an age of industrial polypharmacy, and the troubling rise of indiscriminate violence in our time. Paul John Scott is an award-winning journalist who lives in Minnesota. This is his first novel. Advance Praise for “If it weren’t a cliché, I’d say Malcharist is impossible to put down. The prose is razor-sharp, and it has the narrative drive of a crime thriller. It is also extremely funny. If John Le Carré had the dark, lacerating wit of Hunter S. Thompson, he might have written a book like this.”
~ Carl Elliott, author, White Coat, Black Adventures on the Dark Side of Medicine “An engaging, fast-moving read that has the corruption in the clinical trials business down cold. It takes real talent to turn this subject into a page-turner, and that is what Paul John Scott has accomplished with Malcharist.”
~ Robert Whitaker, author, Anatomy of an Epidemic , and Mad in America. “If you’re like me, you won’t be able to put down this taut, racy thriller about the pharmaceutical industry. If, at the end, you breathe a sigh of relief—it is fiction after all—what you really need to know, the scariest thing of all, is that it’s all too true. All too accurate. And it almost certainly applies to whatever drug you happen to be taking now.”
~ David Healy, co-author, Children of the Cure , author, The Decapitation of Care, Pharmageddon, Let Them Eat Prozac, and The Antidepressant Era

352 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 22, 2020

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and fun. Worth the time and money.

This engaging book pulls the reader into the shadowy world of big pharma for a unique thriller. It spotlights many real, questionable techniques used to create, 'brand' and sell the next big drug and the Herculean challenges faced by journalists trying to go beyond the press releases to report on full story behind a new drug. Occasionally, I wished the action would slow a bit to allow me better absorb the nuances of the plot and there were characters that I would have liked to have known better as the story rolled to its satisfying conclusion. The obscure title doesn't do the intriguing book any favors, in my opinion. However, it's a fascinating summer read by a talented first-time novelist that's worth your time and money. I look forward to what he'll write next. Full disclosure: The author is a co-worker.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the Pharma/ghostwriting plot of this book, along with the characters. It's scary that this is a novel that isn't so far-fetched. 4 stars instead of 5 because his writing style wasn't my favorite. Hope to see more novels in this topic area.

[Karl Oestreich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Page Turner

Paul John Scott’s first novel is well worth the read. He’s a wonderful storyteller. Malcharist has lots of twists and turns and colorful characters. It won’t disappoint you. Looking forward to Scott’s next one!

[Marie Lutz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I basically enjoyed this novel ( I’ll get to the basically shortly) which describes the ways pharmaceutical companies have (among other things) lied, distorted clinical trial results, hidden side effects of their drugs, and attempted to sell medications for all sorts of conditions whether these medicines can help or not. As a former medical writer and a person who’s extremely interested in the many ways drug companies have corrupted our medical system, I was engrossed by how accurately Scott describes some of the really evil things that are going on. Scott describes the trials and tribulations of a journalist who gets burned when he publicizes some of the wrong doings of a pharmaceutical company. He also follows that company’s guilt-ridden ghost writer as she has increasing doubts about her role in the company’s deceptions. The depiction of those two main characters is decent. But Scott goes overboard in what pharmaceutical companies can do as for example when he lets the chief villain erase all proof of the existence of a main character. No way. My other objection is the jazzy writing style Scott uses. It may not bother everyone, but I didn’t like it. For example, “Yeah, conno-f....ing-rations. Lobster bake-on the beach is going to get us some sunsetty fantasy shots.” Or “Mad honeys, the full Abercrombie.” But for me the pleasure of reading a nicely plotted novel that so satisfyingly exposed the wrongdoings of the pharmaceutical industry outweighed the book’s faults.