Tainted: A Dr. Zol Szabo Medical Mystery

Ross Pennie's first Dr. Sol Szabo book is a tightly written mystery thriller populated by unforgettable characters, believable threats, and a quick pace that never seems rushed. Dr. Szabo battles the believable bureaucracy of public health while dealing with some very real closer to home threats. Best thing about the story (without giving anything away, and other than the believable storyline) are the characters. Pennie makes us care about them all, even the secondary characters, and I'm eager to see how their relationships develop in his next book in the series.

This book turned me from an asleep-by-ten reader to a gotta-finish-this-before-I-go-to-sleep bleary-eyed wreck. Pennie's Dr. Zol Szabo is an improbable hero, a public health bureaucrat. Ho-hum, I thought, another Yuppie doctor story. I'll just read fifty pages or so and toss it. But Zol turned out to be far more than I expected. He's quirky, multi-dimensional, courageous, adventurous, vulnerable and smart. And a single father with a decent kid. The story, a satisfyingly detailed, fast-moving hunt for the sources of a deadly mad-cow variant, takes the investigators from gourmet groceries to a sleazy mink farm to bureaucratic hideouts, all set in a Canadian landscape. Some things I liked: --the names. No Brads, Haleys, Justins, or Stephanies here--instead there are names with heft and texture: Zol and Max Szabo, Dr. Hamish Wakefield, Ermalinda the housekeeper, his assistant Natasha Sharma, and so on. --the places, including my all-time favorite place name,Moose Testicles, the place unsuccessful bureaucrats fear to go. And the grisley mink farm and meat-processing plant. And Canada in the late fall. I'm so tired of New York and L.A. Fast-paced story,interesting settings, complex and interesting cast, what'snot to like. I bought an extra copy for my book club.