Author: Joseph Finder.

Publisher: Dutton

ISBN:  9781101985847

A simple white pill that can take you to places where you’ve never been. Realities are destroyed and images can seem real and your actions and your reactions to this pill might take your life. Nick Heller is our main character and our link to what will be one of the most daring and dangerous cases he’s ever undertaken. Oxycontin and Oxycodone are addicting and at first someone might take the required dosage, but dependence is often the norm and higher dosages become necessary and a pain reliever becomes a pain dependent.

The transition from pain relieve to abuse and then addiction comes fast and the end result as we enter the core of this dynamic mystery thriller where the primary focus deals with a pharmaceutical company that created this drug , did clinical trials and his the results because profit and sales are prime and lives are not.

The novel starts with a first scene allowing readers to understand and get to know how powerful and thorough Nick Heller is when taking down someone who cheats on taxes and is under investigation by the IRS. But the next scene sends him on the warpath to uncover the secrets surrounding Kimball Pharmaceuticals and where the hidden documents are that will bring them down.

A close friend calls and the journey begins when the wife of a military friend takes an overdose of Oxycodone, a nasal spray that dispenses a powerful opiate quickly and his friend Sean was hooked on and overdosed. His wife and family are distraught and the reactions of his children heartbreaking. Things take on a different turn when a member of the Kimball family approaches Nick with an unusual and challenging request at Sean’s funeral. Susan/Sukie Kimball wants Nick to somehow break into her father’s hidden safe or area where he stores his documents and files to uncover the truths behind the studies done and findings on Oxycodone. People are dying, billions made, doctors prescribing it and unlimited prescriptions filled. Sukie wants to hire Nick to get the evidence that this drug is addictive, and the pharmaceutical company hid these facts from the public and people like his friend Sean were victims to this deception.

Meeting the family introduced as her date at her father’s 80th birthday party we meet the entire colorful family and a face from his past that shocks Nick and changes the entire direction of his focus as this friend his commanding officer when in the military comes front and center as two private investigators hired by a family member but for different reasons.

Meeting the family each one has their own position and all especially Megan want their share of the money delineated in their father’s will, but she wants her father out.

Flashbacks about Maggie his military friend and more help readers understand their relationship and when it ended. When she’s found dead it leads Nick into a frenzy and an alliance with the police. Not giving up he even manages with some unique technology to get into the office of the one person that might have the documents and files concerning the Oxycodone study.

Things spiral out of control and when Nick begins to gather more information and realizes that Megan wants her father out , has found evidence of his excess spending even though the company is losing money, Nick turns to Sukie for information but there are some that have targeted her and other members by committing violent protests and now Nick needs to find a way to protect her and keep them both alive.

When the Kimball company has a sales meeting, Nick insists on going as Sukie’s guest and a confrontation between her and Megan sets the stage for what both sisters have planned. Insults are hauled from both sides, the Tallin File in question as that holds the evidence and secrets that would take Conrad Kimball down. But things take an odd turn and Nick finds out what Gabe has been up to and he’s torn in different directions.

With Fritz Heston the Director of security watching his every move and hiring security from an unusual source to follow him and encourage him to stop what he’s put in place, author Joseph Finder takes us deep inside the mind of this Pharmaceutical company, the CEO, his goals and his plans to evade the lawsuits. Rationalizing that he’s helping so many in pain, that Oxycodone is there for the good of so many, the author in many ways presents both sides of the argument. Many feel opioids are the solution to pain and others become addicted they can’t function without them and the doctors that go against Kimball are given strong monetary reasons and more to comply.

As Nick Heller gets closer to the truth and realizes that manipulation, greed and power were behind the murder of Maggie and the reason Sean overdosed author Joseph Finder opens the eyes of readers to what happens when a father demands control, devise all odds and will stop at nothing including taking down his own family in order to win the war. Offshore accounts that are hidden, a company losing money and a father who has a plan to evade the lawsuits and more. Conrad Kimball’s vision was only his and his children wanted it all even before he dies. A family so divided, an ending so explosive as we get to know the innermost thoughts, wants and hopes of the Kimball siblings. Each one targeting something else, each one with their own vision for the future of Kimball Pharmaceuticals and each one’s prime motive greed, control and power. The power to take down an empire, the fate of a family at risk as one person decides to end it all for everyone as the flames soar, the family is locked within the walls of what some might call a fortress but who will escape when the smoke is cleared from The House On Fire?

A small white pill with the power to destroy your senses and takes away more than your pain. Opioids are addictive. Think before you swallow one.