CAPITOL REFLECTIONS is one of the debut titles from new publisher The Story Press, and the first novel from senior White House health adviser Jonathan Javitt. And, it’s Javitt’s introduction to his intended series character, Dr. Gwen Maulder.
With his background in health policy, biotechnology and related sciences, it’s no surprise that Javitt’s debut is a medical thriller, in the mold of Robin Cook and others. What is surprising is that, in the face of its several deficiencies, it is a fairly gripping mystery that maintains reader interest to the very end.
FDA scientist and investigator Maulder is stunned to learn of the sudden death of his best friend, Marci Newman, an attorney who collapsed from a sudden, violent seizure just before presenting one of her several cases. Although a chronic workaholic and an occasional smoker, Newman was in generally good health, so there is little explanation for the cause of the seizure.
Maulder decides to investigate her friend’s death behind the backs of her superiors. Utilizing a vast databank of medical symptoms, she discovers a series of similar deathly seizures in various areas of the U.S. Searching deeper, with the help of her husband, a former Secret Service agent and a few other associates, she finally uncovers a link between the deaths and the opening of shops for a new, popular brand of coffee.
But her databank investigation sets off warning bells with politicians and other powerful people who could lose millions at the hands of a health scandal. They in turn set out at first to discredit her findings, and then threaten the lives of Maulder, her husband and everyone enlisted in her investigation.
After several convincing opening chapters, Javitt suddenly brings the narrative to a halt for an overly long flashback sequence some 28 years before. While this section introduces the novel’s main antagonist and other important related details, it is an awkward and initially confusing intrusion. A more experienced writer would know how to intersperse this same information within the story, instead of taking four chapters out of the main flow. Fortunately, once he gets past this near-detrimental speed bump, the author regains his momentum and keeps the narrative in the present.
Other setbacks include his struggle with pop-culture references — including his insistence that a national coffee franchise would use the same literary reference as Starbucks and name itself Pequod’s — and the heavy-handed portrayal of his minor antagonists. Then there is a side story involving a sex-slave market operated by the same individuals involved with the revealed health risks. It’s an entirely different tangent that adds little to the overall narrative impact.
But what balances these setbacks is the brisk pacing Javitt achieves through most of the thriller, as well as the frightening relevance of his premise. Without giving too much away, suffice to say it deals with the genetic mutation of the foods we eat, the money that can be made with the increased production of such artificially produced product, and the alarming lack of sufficient procedures to safeguard our health in the face of such mutations.
In other words, he has hit upon a contemporary topic that could easily be mined through several compelling stories with his Gwen Maulder character. Now all he needs is the knowledge and experience to present such stories without so much stumbling. For the moment, CAPITOL REFLECTIONS is okay, but it could have been really good. —Alan Cranis
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