Medicines & Poisons

A brilliant young physician, Vic Fairchild may have invented a new cure for cancer, but his chronic insecurities keep him from finishing it. Even though he's at the top of his field he feels he must compete with every doctor he encounters, including his father and ex-girlfriend. His father, a famed neurosurgeon, constantly critiques every move Vic makes. Kelsee, his ex-girlfriend and an over-achieving neuroradiologist like Vic, starts working in the same hospital and they tirelessly demonstrate their unique ability to miscommunicate. Ripley, a battle-tested interventional lab manager who is one of Vic's rare friends, does his best to stop Vic from doing dumb things while scavenging ample entertainment from Vic and Kelsee's bungling efforts at another relationship. Faced with dwindling options as Big Pharma refuses to fund his project, Vic prepares to abandon his work when Jack Carrington, young son of the Institute's wealthy benefactor, becomes sick with the kind of cancer Vic's treatment might cure. Parental desperation and the power of wealth force Vic to try his experimental therapy on Jack, even though he knows it's far too soon to use it on humans. After watching Jack quickly recover, a Big Pharma exec sees new business potential in the therapy and agrees to fund a clinical trial. To Vic's surprise, more cancer patients improve and he starts enjoying his newfound fame and success. But when arrogance replaces well-earned pride, he alienates what few friends he has and sees his father's cautions about hubris only as reminders of insecurities he's endured forever. When the clinical starts going badly, Vic is humbled as he watches his patients start dying. He desperately seeks ways to help them but as the FDA shuts down the trials, Vic is well on his way to losing everything. This novel of medical intrigue illuminates the persistence and humility of clinicians and patients in hospitals. Written with humor and pathos, Medicines & Poisons is about overcoming adversity, and also about fathers and sons-and the women who put up with them.