Deadly Cure

Starred review from September 18, 2017
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. Agent: Michael Carlisle, Inkwell Management.

October 1, 2017

In 1899 Brooklyn, Dr. Noah Whitestone is accused of prescribing a lethal dose of laudanum to an ailing five-year-old patient by the boy's powerful and politically connected regular doctor. To prove his innocence, Whitestone must investigate and face down the real killer. Along the way, he encounters a muckraking radical editor and soon gets drawn into a grim world of politics and experimental drugs. VERDICT Goldstone follows his acclaimed debut historical mystery, The Anatomy of Deception, with another vibrant and distinctive forensic page-turner. For fans of Caleb Carr and E.S. Thompson.--ACT

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2017
The sometimes unethical use of experimental procedures and medications by doctors is under scrutiny in Goldstone's latest Victorian medical mystery. Brooklyn doctor Noah Whitestone, pining for his dead wife and child, and ambivalently awaiting his next marriage, rushes to his neighbor's house to treat five-year-old Willard Anschutz, in the absence of the boy's regular doctor, only to watch the child die. Unfortunately, Willard's usual physician is both powerful and vindictive, and his pugnacious father is a famous military man on his way home. Noah is publicly accused of the child's death, but he knows Willard's demise came through pernicious opiate use of some kind. With his career and his life on the line, Whitestone fights to prove his innocence and expose the real criminals. A fascinating perspective on the introduction and misuse of patent medicines, this puzzler makes a forceful statement against the kinds of drugs that are still a problem today. With strong female characters, twisted bad guys, and a suspenseful, fast-moving plot, this immensely readable historical mystery compares well with Anne Perry's A Sunless Sea (2012) and E. S.Thomson's Beloved Poison (2016).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)