Poison in the Pills
by August Raine
A Review
I have a nasty habit of downloading way too many books, of which I do not have time to read. If you have read practically any of my reviews thus far, you probably know this.
I was initially offered a chance to read this book by the author in late February. Considering it is June (when this is posted, I actually wrote this last Saturday), obviously it was a good decision to say no to begin with – not that I didn't want to read it, I simply did not have time.
In late April, I had some free time coming up, so I got back in touch with the author, and asked if the offer still stood. I was so happy when it did!
You may be wondering – if I got my copy of the book at the end of April, how come it has taken me an entire month to read it? Is it a really long book?
No.
I started reading it yesterday, and finished it today.
My free time evidently wasn't as much time as I anticipated.
I'm going to stop talking now, introduce the book, and get to the review – it's been long enough coming already!
A new street drug is ravaging the UK. Users are being struck down by an incurable illness. Those suffering from the dreaded Itch are in so much pain they’ve peeled the flesh from their bones, desperate to relieve their symptoms.
Set in and around Manchester, the story follows Jack Bright, a scientist determined to help those affected. Whilst investigating a clinical trial that ended in tragedy, he uncovers a disturbing secret. Little does he know, someone will stop at nothing to keep the truth buried. Before Jack can find out more, he is framed.
Desperate, not only to clear his name but also to find the truth, Jack is forced to resort to increasingly questionable methods. Breaking and entering. Blackmail. Kidnapping. With every decision, his morals are tested. But he perseveres, motivated by a tragedy in his past.
Jack’s luck is constantly dwindling, until he finds himself racing against more than just the people who are after him. What will it take to cure The Itch?
And after so long, my review!
I will start by pointing out, I read this book in two days – it would have been one, but I had to go out in the evening of the first day, so I couldn't sit down and keep reading like I wanted to. I love thriller and crime movies, and this love is slowly moving onto my bookshelf (or indeed, my eReader). Therefore, when I started reading this, I was almost immediately gripped.
With an illness, aptly called the Itch, causing so much suffering and fear, the company Jack Bright works for, Rathbury Holmes, a pharmaceutical company, is working to try and find a cure. After a previous attempt at a cure ended with seven people dead, Jack is desperate to find out what happened. Yet, his boss had already repeatedly told him to stop doing so. With no desire to do so, Jack plans on continuing anyway, when he is framed as a dealer of the banned drug Dose, the drug that was banned when it was identified as the cause of the Itch.
Jack is a very troubled person. He only wants to do good, to find out what caused the failure of the last 'cure' so that it won't happen again, and maybe lead to the development of something that can actually help, but when he is arrested, his ability to do so seems to dwindle. The situations he keeps finding himself in, which are usually his own fault, get increasingly less forgivable, yet his reasoning, and the guilt he feels afterwards, somehow make you feel sorry for him. He is not cut out to be a criminal, and solving the mystery might be the only thing that can prove his innocence.
Jack has several people helping him, the first one of his best friends from work, Lizzy, who has access to Rathbury Holmes, even after Jack can no longer show his face in public. The second is Erin, whom Jack is not particularly friendly with, and is a campaigner against the Dose ban. Unfortunately, Lizzy's boyfriend is part of the police force, so Jack has no choice but to stay with Erin, the two forced to put up with each other. Both Erin and Lizzy are incredibly sarcastic, and I really liked both of them. I preferred Lizzy, though, as Erin seems to get Jack into trouble just as much as he gets himself into trouble.
Now, I am no chemistry wizz, in fact I get easily confused by most science talk, but this book was easy to follow. As Jack theorises about the failed cure, and the Itch, there were some things that I had to read slower to understand, but this is just because I do not understand the concept of chemicals and how they work.
Being a thriller, there have to be some twists and turns. I saw one, in particular, coming, due to clues in the story that I picked up, but there is one at the end that I could not have foreseen even if it was a bus heading straight for me.
I wish I had read this book sooner, because it was absolutely amazing, and even better, believable. Jack does not go on the run and easily evade the police, nor does he have a particularly easy time trying to prove his theories, even when he is absolutely positive that he is correct. People have in their brains what they have been told over and over is the cause of so many things, and they are unwilling to believe anything contradicting this. I thought this perfectly sums up normal behaviour of the masses when someone has a different idea that no one wants to believe.
All in all, this is a great book and if you like thriller/crime books (or movies!) you are likely to enjoy this book.
And end review! It's a bit of a long one, but I think after so long between getting and reading this book, and finishing reading it not too long ago, I have a lot of thoughts about it.
Having finished my review, I am now thinking that this book reminds me a little of that movie Contagion, you know, the one about a global pandemic that was trending No.1 on Netflix about March time last year?!
Okay, that's all I have to say for now!
Bye!
No comments:
Post a Comment