Side Effect
Sandra Feder
Thornwood Publishing Co. LLC 2000

5 stars Highly recommended

A series of mysterious deaths are somehow tied to drug research work underway by Dr Grant Fraser. Grant has created an important drug that he feels may well revolutionize the medical community when suddenly his research is stopped by Altimate Pharmaceuticals. Complicating the situation is the presence of Joss Avery, a fellow researcher and Daniele Horcroft. Daniele, daughter of Nathan Horcroft the president of Altimate does not much like Grant. Grant's romance with Daniele's sister Dena ended when Dena died in an accident. Grant's determination to find the truth behind what is going on leads him on a not so merry chase. He soon faces too many close calls with death and a shocking realization that the one person he thought he might trust may not be quite so trustworthy. No one is safe; not Grant's dog Bailey, not Dena's nephew Michael, danger lurks on every hand.

"Side Effect" is a real page turner filled with complicity, adventure, real life situation, narrow escapes, help from unexpected sources and more twists and turns than a roller coaster. Writer Feder has crafted a gripping, well wrought work filled with vibrant, often very likeable, characters, interesting circumstances and clever dialogue. Her experience as a research chemist has been put to good use in this narrative.

The 'bad guys' are well developed, callous beyond belief and will catch you off guard if you are not careful. I found the originality shown by this writer to be very refreshing. "Side Effect" is not a 'canned' or formula work by any means.

The distress Grant portrays as he strives to unravel this fast moving, action packed tale is something we can feel and understand. His increasing confusion regarding who may be friend and or foe washes over onto the reader, don't be caught off guard by those cagey red herrings. Feder's work is filled with emotion, duplicity along with a hefty dollop of down right fright tossed in just to keep it interesting.

Filled with the mystery of an Agatha Christie novel and the fast action William Manchee portrays in his Stan Turner series "Side Effect" is a book you will not want to put down until you have reached that last page.