House on Fire--A Novel

Starred review from November 18, 2019
Nick Heller takes on big pharma in Thriller Award–winner Finder’s excellent fourth novel featuring the Boston PI (after 2016’s Guilty Minds). Sean Lenehan, who saved Heller’s life when they were in Afghanistan as members of a Special Forces team, has died from an overdose of the painkiller Oxydone. At Lenehan’s funeral, Heller is approached by Sukie Kimball, daughter of Conrad Kimball, the head of Kimball Pharma, which produces Oxydone. She explains that she attends the funerals of many of those who have died as a result of her family’s product in order “to bear witness to the victims of the drug that made us all rich.” Sukie hires Heller to find and steal the smoking gun that will bankrupt Kimball Pharma and send Conrad to prison—a study that demonstrated Oxydone’s addictive nature suppressed before the drug was put on the market. Heller agrees. The stakes rise when he goes undercover as Sukie’s boyfriend at Conrad’s Katonah, N.Y., home, where a copy of the study might be hidden, and ends up investigating a murder. Fans of timely, thoughtful page-turners will be richly rewarded. Five-city author tour. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House.

December 15, 2019
Private investigator Nick Heller uncovers disturbing truths about a big pharmaceutical company after the fatal overdose of a war buddy addicted to its hugely profitable opioid, Oxydone. Heller's introduction to Kimball Pharmaceutical comes through Sukie Kimball--the conscience-stricken daughter of the company's founder--who approaches him at his friend Sean's funeral. Sukie hires Heller to break into her billionaire father Conrad's home office after his retirement party and lift documents that reveal Oxydone failed its clinical trials--proof that the drug was put on the market with full knowledge of its dangers. Heller, who attends the party in the family's house as Sukie's boyfriend, is surprised to meet someone he knows--Maggie Benson, a one-time flame from his stint in Afghanistan, who's tonight wearing a wig and calling herself Hildy. When he sneaks down the hallway at 2 a.m. to try to find the papers, he finds Maggie on a similar mission, having been hired by another Kimball sibling to steal Conrad Kimball's will. Following a murder on the grounds and other setbacks, Sukie calls him off the case. But, determined to avenge Sean, who saved his life in Afghanistan, Heller puts himself in harm's way in continuing his pursuit of those responsible for serial Oxydone deaths. Though Finder's latest thriller is well timed and well intended, it lacks the punch of his best efforts. The plot, usually his strong suit, is wobbly (wouldn't Heller be more than mildly surprised by Maggie's presence?), leading one to believe that sticking to what Heller refers to as "the Agatha Christie aspect" of the case might not have been a bad thing. A drug thriller with too few thrills.

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Starred review from December 1, 2019
Finder is a master of the narrow escape. In his stand-alone thrillers, his protagonists are abruptly plunged from ordinary lives into mazes that other people have constructed; their survival depends on finding the way out. In his Nick Heller series (this is the fourth), the hero, a former Special Forces A-team leader in Iraq and Afghanistan and now a Boston private eye, actively seeks out mazes, escaping from one, only to fall into the next. At the center of this mystery is the opioid epidemic, especially its devastating effect on veterans. Heller's best friend from Special Forces has just died of an opioid overdose. The would-be whistleblower daughter of a pharma company scion seeks Heller out to discover hidden documents that prove the company knowingly profited from peddling addictive products. Heller, propelled by anguish over his friend's death, uses all of his Special Forces skills and his quirky assistant's techno wizardry to find the documents. The extended scenes of Heller breaking and entering into a mansion and, later, a corporation are exquisitely detailed. Finder's characterization of Heller gets more layered with every installment. The way Heller moves through the mystery, using social skills, street smarts, and technology to get in and out of trouble, is breathtaking. Excruciating suspense.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

January 17, 2020

Finder's fourth "Nick Heller" novel (Vanished; Buried Secrets; Guilty Minds) picks up with Nick learning of the death of his friend and army buddy Sean. Sean, who saved Nick's life when they served together, fought and lost a battle with opioid addiction. At Sean's funeral, Nick is approached by Sukie Kimball, part of the Kimball pharma family--makers of the powerful drug Oxydone, responsible for Sean's death. Sukie is a documentary filmmaker and ostensible black sheep of the family. She hires Nick to find proof that the company knew of the addictive dangers of Oxydone before it went to market. At his first undercover meeting with the family, however, he's surprised to find Maggie, his old colleague and lover, has been hired by other factions within the family working toward different ends. VERDICT This thriller is not only topical but beautifully driven by the intricacies of personal agendas, both obvious and hidden. Easily read as a stand-alone as well as part of the series, this is sure to captivate a new audience and bring them to the Joseph Finder backlist. [See Prepub Alert, 7/8/19.]--Julie Kane, Washington & Lee Lib., Lexington, VA

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2019

At the funeral of an army friend who had saved his life and later succumbed to opiate addiction, private investigator Nick Heller encounters a member of a family whose fortune derives from opiates. She wants to turn whistleblower, revealing that the family's pharmaceutical company knew how dangerously addictive Oxydone was, and Nick signs on to help.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.