The Trial-Larry D. Thompson

The Trial
Larry D. Thompson
Dunne, Mar 29 2011, $25.99
ISBN 9780312607357

Teenager Samantha Vaughn learns that her liver is failing at the same time someone murders an executive with incriminating disks. Samantha’s father, former Houston lawyer Luke Vaughn, is shocked with his nineteen years old daughter’s illness as liver problems do not run in the family and she was okay recently.

The single dad who just returned home to San Marcos due to a perforated ulcer finds out the cause of her failing health is a trial test of a new antibiotic Exxacia that she was given. Learning more and concluding there was fraud by the firm and a cover-up by the FDA occurred. Raging over what he believes is potentially lethal negligence; Luke sues the giant Ceventa Pharmaceutical and its CEO Dr. Alfred Kingsbury, and goes after the FDA especially the Director Dr. Roger Boatwright for failing to protect the public. However, Luke never expected murder and abduction as the reaction by the enemy.

This is an exciting medical-legal thriller that grips the audience from the moment Samantha asks Dr. Hartman whether she will live to see her twentieth birthday and never slows down. The story line is fast-paced and at its best when the focus is on the FDA-pharmaceutical industry symbiotic relationship and in the court room; when the plot turns to homicides and abduction, it loses steam as that feels over the top of Guadalupe Peak. Still in spite of a post game coda that feels out of place and the homicidal subplot, overall fans will enjoy the doubly apt titled The Trial.

Harriet Klausner