"She leaned down to hear what he was trying to say. He was still staring up at her, but she could hear him say 'Allah Akbar. Allah Akbar.'"
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The Formula by Joel Feiss Llumina Press
book review by Karyn Saemann
A pharmaceutical researcher's murder draws her friends, family, Iranian fiance, and medical colleagues into dangerous, far-flung conflict with ties to the U.S., Europe, and Middle East. Just before she is gunned down, Dr. Laura Russo wraps up research into a psychiatric drug that has the dual potential to quell in soldiers both battlefield and post-traumatic fear and anxiety, and she finds an Israeli market for it. But Islamic revolutionaries in Tehran, aided by multinational operatives with 20th Century German Nazi roots, want the drug's formula, too. And they will go to great lengths, including murder, to keep it out of the hands of Israelis. Dr. Russo's childhood friend and Aspen police detective, Ronny Christakos, and brother, a member of the U.S. Army Special Forces, join in the international effort to bring down the killers and to secure her pharmaceutical formula.
Feiss' writing is intellectually dense. Throughout the novel are regularly interspersed, detailed explanatory passages, often with distinctly discernible viewpoints, on world history and modern politics and religion. There is also a profusion of detail about most small things, from characters' career, clothing, and vehicle choices to their meal, home decor, exercise, and leisure preferences. The sizeable, intertwined cast of characters includes many renowned doctors whose dialogue is thick with medical and pharmaceutical language. Feiss' personal background, as a practicing gastroenterologist and internist, lends authority to the medical details. Feiss does an excellent job of scene setting in Aspen, Colorado, and Tehran, providing detail about the communities and surrounding areas that could only come from his having a deep familiarity with both locations. And the author counters the intellectual material with moderate romance and plenty of bloody action. Brainy intrigue.