By Gregory Bascom
Westfield, New Jersey, a hamlet of 28,000, had not had a homicide in over two decades until Roland Howard, who would not harm a fly, kills four young women at The Gap with a fully automatic shotgun. Policeman Clark responds. Clark and Roland simultaneously kill each other.

Lt. Joe Henderson, lead detective for the Westfield P.D., formerly with the N.Y.C.P.D. and Karplan's debut novel The House of Ghosts, knows the Howard family. He is puzzled as to why Roland, who suffered from severe asthma, was not carrying his inhaler. In talking to Roland's wife, Joe learns that Roland's asthma was cured after he enrolled in the clinical trial for the biotech drug Alpha 32. But then three months later his pussycat personality became confrontational and paranoid. A psychiatrist, declaring Roland psychotic, prescribed a cocktail of medications with numerous side effects. Roland quit taking his meds.

Other psychotic homicides by persons taking Alpha 32 follow, but medical researchers cannot find evidence of a real or even theoretical link to the drug. Then the researchers begin to suffer suspicious accidental deaths.

In this face-paced story, Detective Joe is not cast as an over-the-top gunslinger who outwits the devious villains. Indeed, a couple of investigative reporters do most of the sleuthing. Joe must contend with a decade's old grudge from Vietnam, an unfriendly supervisor, addictions to Marlboros, beer and a Russian siren, and a huge cast of quirky characters.

A fun read.