"Do not call to a dog with a whip in your hand." Zululand Proverb

Schiffer Hartwin ia a pharmacy company that has developed Culovort, a drug beneficial in the treatment of patients undergoing chemotherapy.

The patent for the drug has run out and now it is inexpensive and is not much gain to the company. Suddenly, the supply of the drug runs out.

Dr. Edward Kinder, whose father is undergoing chemotherapy, contacts Private Eye, Erin Pulaski, to prove that the company is manipulating the supply.

Erin breaks into the company offices and steals important documents but is almost caught and has to escape through a bathroom window.

The next day, Helmut Blauvelt, a German national, who is the company's fix-it-man, is found murdered and FBI agents Lacey Sherlock and Dillon Savich, a husband and wife team, are called to investigate.

Germany is also sending Agent Andreas Kesserling to investigate. They all coordinate with Bowie Richards, who is the New Haven agent in charge. Bowie is also close friends with Vice President Valenti.

When they were summoned, Sherlock and Savich had been helping U.S. Senator David Hoffman, who had been seeing an object outside of his home window. While Dillon is investigating outside Hoffman's home, he hears a voice of a spirit telling him that danger is coming to Hoffman.

cons = There was supposedly grumbling when Bowie was brought in to run the New Haven field office of the FBI, instead of promoting from within. However, bringing in a new field commander is a common practice in the FBI and avoids prior relationships between agents if they are promoted from within.

---One of the FBI Agents has his cell phone connected to Christmas carols and in the midst of the action, the reader is told of the music of "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas," and other carols. This would be a totally unprofessional step for an agent to take and took away from the drama of the novel.

---There are many cases of dialogue repeating that is unnecessary and takes away from the situation, "...she ate another shrimp." "I see you like the shrimp," "I usually order the shrimp myself." It would be easier and more literate to change the repetition to change to things like, I enjoy that item on the menu, etc.

...Unrealistic dialogue, as for instance, Kesselring walked in. A character mentions, "What are you doing here, Agent Kesselring ?" If he just walked in, the character wouldn't have needed to mention his name.

...An FBI agent communicating with spirits.

Pros... The author writes a good story and in spite of the above flaws, she keeps the reader's attention and desire to see how the mystery of the novel is solved.

I have enjoyed Catherine Coulter's work in the past but don't think that this is one of her better novels.

Please check my amazon review and if you agree, state that the review was helpful.

http://www.amazon.com/review/R1J4TPGBZNIMEO/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0399156534&nodeID=&tag=&linkCode=