Judgment Day

by Patrick Reinken

When attorney Jon Patchett is asked by Weber BioTech to look into the apparent suicide of one of its researchers, Alexander Tomlin, the young lawyer knows the stakes are high: Weber fears the death will affect FDA approval of its new AIDS vaccine, Prohiva - approval that could save millions of lives and make millions of dollars. But Jon and his legal assistant, Anne Matheson, have no idea that they are about to uncover a diabolical plot more chilling than the fictional nightmare visions created by Robin Cook or the real-life headline-capturing ravages of viruses like Ebola.

As Jon and Anne begin their investigation, they know that Weber is intent on making sure that nothing - including Tomlin's death - will interfere with the approval process. But the discovery of unexplained notes buried in boxes of documents, and then the death of Tomlin's secretary and lover, start them on a journey that leads to BioTech's laboratory in the southwest desert. There, they learn the truth: the company's top-secret Prohiva research included an experiment in human testing that has gone disastrously amok. And the pharmaceutical company is silently eliminating the victims to protect the secret.

With the lies surrounding the vaccine beginning to unravel, Jon and Anne stumble into a race against time as Weber executives, in a frantic effort to eliminate all the evidence of their deadly research, close in on them...

Genres: Fiction

384 pages, Hardcover

First published July 19, 1996

Reviews

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book had an intriguing premise and the story was good. Wouldn't necessarily consider it a must-read though. Because the author told the story from the legal perspective instead of the scientific perspective, it didn't pull me in quite as strongly, as my knowledge of the legal field is less developed than my knowledge of science and medicine. A lot of the book was spent with the main character reviewing documents that his law firm had drawn up for the biotech company that was one of their clients, but for me, the main purpose of these documents and their importance in the investigation was lost due to my unfamiliarity. That said, it didn't make the story hard to follow, just a bit tedious at points. It also took a while for the actual nature of the biotech company's shady dealings to be revealed, which makes sense as the author wouldn't want the reader to necessarily know before the law firm does, but the science perspective would have gone into all those juicy details and put the legal case in the background.
I'd consider reading another book by this author, presuming it still had a somewhat scientific theme like this one did.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.0 stars

Originally reviewed on The StoryGraph

slow start, but got more interesting as the mystery developed. Lots of seemingly random vignettes that add to the story well if you have the patience to get there. I personally was hoping for more focus on the medical research side of things, but the story is being told from the investigating lawyer’s perspective and did that well. The resolution of the plot was complete - all loose ends seemed to be tied up, but it wasn’t completely satisfying. I don’t feel like I wasted my time reading this, but also won’t ever revisit.

[Cassie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yikes, this was a very slow and confusing start. If you could skip to about page 100, the rest of the story had some good suspense. The Barber was an odd addition that felt like it could have been its own spinoff. The concept of a HIV vaccine sounds plausible, but the storyline was a bit of a mess.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Judgment Day is a pretty run-of-the-mill thriller novel, with a nefarious big company doing bad things to the little people for money. The concept--an AIDS vaccine that's actually more virulent than HIV itself--is pretty gripping for this day and age, but unfortunately, Reinken chooses to focus more on the relatively unlikeable characters and their individual redemptions (or just desserts, for the bad guys) rather than really exploring the global ramifications of what something like this would do to the world we live in. The vaccine becomes the big bad but it could have been anything and not affected the story in any way. A good airplane book, but nothing life changing here.

[Toesnorth's mom]

medical suspense, good