Deadly Cure
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A remarkable new historical thriller by New York Times notable mystery author Lawrence Goldstone that evokes the New York City of 1899.
In 1899, in Brooklyn, New York, Dr. Noah Whitestone is called urgently to his wealthy neighbor’s house to treat a five-year-old boy with a shocking set of symptoms. When the child dies suddenly later that night, Noah is accused by the boy’s regular physician—the powerful and politically connected Dr. Arnold Frias—of prescribing a lethal dose of laudanum.
To prove his innocence, Noah must investigate the murder—for it must be murder—and confront the man whom he is convinced is the real killer. His investigation leads him to a reporter for a muckraking magazine and a beautiful radical editor who are convinced that a secret, experimental drug from Germany has caused the death of at least five local children, and possibly many more. Noah is drawn into a dangerous world of drugs, criminals, and politics, which threatens not just his career but also his life.
Goldstone weaves a savvy tale of intrigue and stunning twists that incorporates real-life historical figures and events while richly recreating the closing days of the nineteenth century—a time when American might was on the march in the Pacific, medicine was poised to leap into a new era, radical politics threatened the status quo, and the role of women in American society was undergoing profound change.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in New York City in 1899, this exceptional thriller from Goldstone (Anatomy of Deception) exposes the underside of American medicine at that time. Dr. Noah Whitestone is about to visit some patients from his Brooklyn practice when a neighbor, Mildred Anschutz, begs him to tend to her five-year-old son, Willard, who's suffering severe abdominal pain. Despite his providing appropriate treatment two drops of laudanum to allow the child to rest Willard dies, and his influential family holds Noah responsible. Desperate to clear his name and preserve his reputation, Noah tests a sample of an unknown pill that Arnold Frias, the regular Anschutz family doctor, prescribed to Willard; a radical journalist later informs Noah that Frias may be connected to a cabal that has already made millions peddling patent medicines that are either worthless or actively harmful. Despite his suspicions about the reporter's motives, Noah soon has reason to credit his account and finds his own life in jeopardy. Goldstone again blends fact and fiction seamlessly.)