Side Effect - Like A Rag Doll Falling

by Rod Griffiths

Drug companies have been fined over four and a half billion dollars in the USA for offences related to marketing drugs.This 95,000-word medical thriller gets behind the motives that underlie such behaviour. This is fiction but the author has twenty years of medical experience at high levels in health care management in the UK.The story centres on a new cancer drug with a potentially lethal side effect. In any circumstances it would be hard to diagnose the problem; but for professor Jim Brogan, the epidemiologist running the trials of the drug, things are made much more complicated.Jim’s girl friend Val, is with Danni Foster when she crashes while skiing and remains in a coma, unable to explain that she has taken the drug. Things get worse when Val’s daughter develops Hodgkins disease. Val desperately wants Danni to recover and Mary to have the new drug, and that puts pressure on Jim, particularly when he tries to explain to Val that until the trial is ended he doesn’t know if the drug is safe or effective. The company that make the drug gets a large injection of American money, but unknown to Jim the people behind the money are crooked. They plan to make a fortune from selling the drug and launder their money at the same time. It gradually emerges that Danni, still in a coma, was also involved in this scheme. Danni’s collapse disjoints the American’s plans and they hire Fiona, an ex escort to try to work her way into Danni’s networks and from there on things get very complicated as the different motivations of the key players interact.Jim Brogan’s ethical stance and good nature is stretched in all directions. Al Vincent, the American Godfather behind the money, develops agendas of his own; settling old scores, and using the drug’s side effect as a murder weapon.Somehow, Jim Brogan must save Danni, make the drug safe and get Mary cured, before Al Vincent does too much damage. The final surprise comes from Fiona as the part that Al played in her tragic past becomes clear.

218 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 21, 2010