Author: Joseph Finder

Publisher: Dutton

ISBN: 9781101985847

If you have been paying attention to the news lately, you invariably have come across the hot media issue of the opioid epidemic also known as the opioid crisis. In recent litigation, three major drug distributors and an opioid manufacturer agreed to a two hundred and sixty million settlement with two Ohio counties. The settlement was to avoid the landmark first federal opioid trial that was to begin in late two thousand and nineteen

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Joseph Finder's latest thriller, House On Fire focuses on a family-owned company, Kimball Pharmaceuticals that is tied in with the manufacturing of an opioid drug named, Oxydone. The company has profited handsomely from the selling of the drug even though there have been multiple deaths attributed to its overdosing. One such death was Sean Lenehan, who was a dear friend of our principal character, Nick Heller. Nick is a private spy or as he describes himself as a Private intelligence agent. 

At Sean's funeral, Nick meets Susan Kimball, whose father, Conrad Kimball is the CEO and principal shareholder of Kimball Pharmaceuticals. Susan or as she is also called Sukie tells Nick that she makes it her business to attend funerals of people who died because of Oxydone. Nick is curious as to why she bothers to come to the funerals, and she informs him: “Because I think that some member of my family ought to bear witness to the victims of the drug that made us all rich. Since we sold them all the poison that killed them.” 

Sukie, who knows a little about Nick's occupation and reputation, engages him to find and steal a clinical study that was done on Oxydone while it was being developed. Apparently, the study revealed that Oxydone was dangerously addictive, and, if the government found out, the drug would never have been approved. Kimball Pharmaceuticals suppressed the study and Sukie notifies Nick that all digital copies were purged from the company's network. Nick nonetheless believes that there must be a hard copy around and sets out to track it down. 

While pursuing his mission to track down the important study, Nick meets up with an old flame, Maggie Benson who is likewise hired by one of the Kimball children to find out more about their father's new lover, who is very much his junior. There is fear that she might be trying to have the children cut out of his will. As the story unfolds, Maggie is murdered and now Nick is involved in the added task of finding out who killed Maggie and why? 

Overlapping the main story is some background details concerning Nick's father who is in prison as a result of white-collar crime. We also learn about Nick's nephew who refuses to see his grandfather in prison until Nick convinces him that it is the right thing to do. There is also a love story between Nick and Sukie which results in a surprising ending. 

Suspense stays front and center as Finder's thriller grips the reader and never lets go targeting some of the darker corners of the pharmaceutical industry. A harrowing mission of danger where we have a dysfunctional family falling prey to greed and blind ambition all leading to a sinister ending.