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Parker Barrows emerges from a terrorist bombing as a shattered man. Having lost a leg and his wife, his desire for revenge sustains his existence. His longing for vengeance takes him to Boston, where the bomber currently makes his living. Dan Murphy is a doctor who often treats people with occupational illnesses but is dumbfounded by his brother’s affliction with aplastic anemia. The surprise is only magnified when this disease pops up in a few other local people. Dan becomes acquainted with Anna Carlson, a one-time journalist now studying public health. She is familiar with the environmental effects of industry and believes the illnesses may represent a cluster. Dan investigates further into the local plating company but finds his questions are unwelcome, if not downright dangerous.
A terrorist assault launches this dramatic narrative into action and only doubles down with each successive chapter. Dan is a compassionate doctor turned investigator as the worrying circumstances behind the fatal aplastic anemia continue to increase. Anna has arrived in Dan’s world as both a compelling romantic interest as well as an intellectual equal. The suffering victims of this blight make Dan and Anna determined to discover the source. Their level-headed thinking is offset by the grief-ravaged plotting of Parker Barrows. The empathy for Barrows’ suffering is tangible, making his increasingly diabolical machinations even more painful. This story possesses elements of a medical mystery and a geopolitical struggle, along with an impassioned romance. The reader will find themselves hyperattentive and fixated with every plot twist in McCunney’s novel.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review