Oceanview Publishing
December 2009
ISBN: 978-1-933515-50-2
Hardcover, 336 pp., $25.95
A shiver runs down the reader’s spine in reading the first few pages of this fine new novel by Deborah Shlian and Linda Reid as a glimpse is offered as to what is about to unfold. Ellsford University is a prestigious and ultra-conservative New England college whose Student Health Services program is harboring some truly frightening secrets. Sammy Greene, a junior and host of her own college radio talk show, stumbles upon those secrets following her discovery of the body of a beloved professor of science and genetics at the college. When the official cause of death is determined to be suicide, her inner reporter and amateur sleuth kicks in, only to be made more determined when a talented student appears to have committed suicide as well, and Sammy believes that neither one fit the profile of a potential suicide. Animal studies [and the concomitant animal-rights protests] and other pharmaceutical testing, as well as the question of whether special interests have influenced academic and other decisions at the college, become part of the ensuing inquiries.
When Sammy, a New Yorker who doesn’t back down from a challenge, discovers that there had been a third ‘suicide’ in the past two months, and two students have apparently disappeared from campus, her investigation goes into full swing, occasionally putting her in some TSTL moments but, what the heck, she is a reporter, right? There is little that is subtle in the writing, but that doesn’t lessen the mounting suspense as Sammy’s life is threatened when she gets too close to the truth. After a little while the reader, unlike the protagonist, isn’t sure who, if anyone, can be trusted. A splendid supporting character is Gus Pappajohn, the Greek former Boston detective and current campus police chief, with whom Sammy has a mostly antagonistic relationship.
The topic is eerily timely: No less than the New York Times has in recent days published lengthy articles on the less sinister and more altruistic aspects of animal and human drug trials, in those instances dealing with current and apparently so far successful genetically targeted cancer ‘cures.’ The authors of Dead Air are both physicians and former medical directors of universities and principal investigators in medical research, so one must assume the plausibility of the plot, as comfortable as it might be to think otherwise. Which only serves to escalate its more terrifying aspects. Sammy is a terrific protagonist, one with, as she might say, a lot of chutzpa. The novel is a very satisfying read, and is recommended.
