Erica Rosen MD
Deven Greene
Genre
Medical Thriller
Publication Date
Book 1 7th January 2021
Book 2 21st October 2021
Book 3 18th August 2022
About the Book
Dr. Erica Rosen is perplexed when she sees a young Chinese girl with blue eyes in her San Francisco pediatrics clinic. The girl’s mother, Ting, is secretive, and Erica suspects she has entered the country illegally. Later, Erica encounters Ting’s son and discovers he has an unusual mutation. Erica learns that Ting’s children underwent embryonic stem cell gene editing as part of a secret Chinese government-run program.
The Chinese government wants to murder Ting’s son to prevent others from learning about his unusual mutation and the secret gene-editing program. At Ting’s urging, Erica heads to China to expose the program and rescue the infant Ting was forced to leave behind, all while attempting to evade the watchful eye of the Chinese government.
Dr. Erica Rosen’s world is turned upside down after a suicide bomber explodes amidst a large crowd entering Oracle Park baseball stadium, near her San Francisco home. Many are killed or injured, and police have no leads in solving the case.
Erica becomes involved after a teacher of young autistic men contacts her. The teacher believes her students are involved in the bombing but is afraid to contact law enforcement. She reaches out to Erica, who has experience with special needs children.
Erica arrives at the school but finds the police already there and a young autistic man doing a jigsaw puzzle, oblivious to his murdered teacher on the floor. The young man has information about the mastermind behind the bombing but has limited ability to speak. Erica is determined to protect him, prevent further bombings, and find his missing classmates.
Pediatrician Erica Rosen is stymied when two of her patients don’t respond to medicine as expected. When other patients later develop strange, unexpected illnesses, she is determined to get to the bottom of it.
Meanwhile, the department’s newest pediatrician, Dr. Nilsen, appears to be trying to steal her patients. Erica suspects he is after her job as the clinic director. She also discovers Dr. Nilsen has become romantically involved with her trusted assistant, Martha. One evening, while looking for patient information on Martha’s desk, Erica comes across a list with the names of some of her patients. A boy who recently became ill with a mysterious malady is on the list and has an asterisk by his name. What does that mean?
Erica is convinced something nefarious is underfoot, and Dr. Nilsen, rather than simply being after her job, is engaged in a dangerous scheme involving her patients. Unable to recruit the help of law enforcement in a timely manner, she realizes she must take matters into her own hands. As she proceeds with her investigation, she is unaware of the dangers she is about to encounter.
Book Excerpts
Unnatural Book 1
Ting was yelling, “Call police! Call police!” She had pulled a gun out from I-don’t-know-where and was pointing it at a young Asian man in surgical greens standing by the nursing station, hands raised. He remained calm, laser-focused on Ting.
Brad ran over to me. “That lady’s nuts. She pulled that gun from behind her back. Must have had it inside her pants. Can you talk to her? She obviously likes you best.”
My medical education was sorely lacking when it came to handling patient family members with guns. I slowly approached Ting, holding my right arm up, as if it would stop a bullet coming my way. “Ting,” I said softly. “Please put the gun away. Let’s talk about this. You don’t want to hurt anyone, do you?”
“He come to kill my son! He come to kill Kang!”
Despite her excited state, she held the gun steady, aimed at the man with raised arms. Ill-equipped to be a hostage negotiator, I turned to Brad and asked him to call the police. “Already done,” he whispered. “Try to stall for time until they get here.”
“There’s probably some mistake,” I said to Ting.
“No mistake. Look. See, name tag have different face.
“No one can look as long as you have a gun pointed at him.”
“Someone look. I no shoot.”
The staff looked from one to the other. Finally, Brad spoke up. “Okay, I’ll check. But you’d better not shoot me,” he said, looking at Ting.
Brad walked slowly toward the man in question. “Now I’m just going to look at the identification badge.” Brad’s voice was loud and deliberate as he bent forward, his right arm reaching towards the nametag.
With lightning speed, the Asian man reached into his pocket with his left hand and produced a knife with a four-inch blade. Using his right hand, he grabbed Brad’s outstretched arm, twirled him around and bent his arm at the elbow, pulling it up by the wrist behind his back. When the motion had stopped, the blade tip of the knife in the assailant’s left hand was positioned at Brad’s carotid artery. Brad remained silent, straining to look down at the knife near his neck, less than a quarter inch away from ending his life.
***
Unwitting – Book 2
The officers walked up the driveway cautiously, guns held in both hands, pointed at the door. The driveway was approximately fifty feet long. When they were halfway to the door, I began to follow quietly. Stupid, I know, but I didn’t trust the cops, especially Porter, to exhibit restraint if confronted by one or more of the boys. I needed to try to prevent the situation from spiraling out of control, into a disaster.
When they got to the door, I stopped. Porter reached out and slowly turned the handle. From what I could see, it moved freely. He looked at Wells, who was standing on the other side of the doorway. She nodded.
In a burst of energy, Porter flung the door wide open. He and Wells stormed in, Porter on the left, Wells on the right, guns pointing down at forty-five degrees in front of them. Almost in unison, they yelled, “Police! Freeze! Police! Freeze!”
Hearing nothing more, I ran to the threshold and looked inside. In front of me was a large L-shaped room, some of which was out of view. Several tables, most covered with papers, pencils, crayons, and books, stood adjacent to the white walls decorated with pictures. Porter was standing toward the far end of the room, facing ninety degrees to the left, pointing his gun at someone out of my view. He yelled, “Hands up! Hands up, or I’ll shoot!”
Why fear didn’t overcome me at that moment, I’ll never know. I ran in to see what was happening. The first thing I noticed was a heavyset young woman with long blond hair splayed out, lying on the floor to Porter’s right, face-up. A sizeable pool of coagulated blood had collected on the tan linoleum next to where her right ear would have been had her skull been intact. Looking around, I saw blood spatter on nearby walls and furniture. I looked back at the woman. She looked vaguely familiar, and I surmised it was Brandy. She’d been shot or clubbed to death. As I got closer, I looked to my left, in the direction Porter was pointing his gun.
Bloody footprints led from the blood pooled around the woman’s head to a handsome fair-haired boy I estimated to be sixteen to eighteen years of age, sitting with his hands on the tabletop, facing Porter. He appeared calm despite the gun pointed at his head as he picked out one of the puzzle pieces in front of him and carefully placed it in the partially completed jigsaw puzzle on the table. He seemed unperturbed by the drops of blood sprayed over the table and puzzle.
***
Unforeseen Book 3
Work the next day was uneventful until I received a call on my cell phone from California Analytics, the laboratory I’d sent the cephalexin capsules to. Luckily, I was between patients, so I ducked into an empty room and answered. The caller identified himself as one of the company scientists.
“I wanted to call you myself to explain my results. I tested all three of the Umbroz capsules, as well as the proprietary Keflex capsule.”
“And?” I felt myself getting impatient, a quality of mine I was constantly trying to rein in, with varying success.
“The Keflex capsule had the antibiotic cephalexin in the amount expected. Each of the three Umbroz capsules, however, was deficient. None had more than twenty percent of the expected dose. They also had a small amount of a contaminant, N-nitrosodimethylamine or NDMA. It’s a breakdown product, and has been loosely associated with cancer.”
“Damn,” I said. “That’s terrible. One of my patients was taking that, so in addition to not getting the medication he needed, he was exposed to something dangerous.”
“Since this is an antibiotic, I suspect he didn’t take the medication for long.”
“Only a few days.”
“I wouldn’t worry about the cancer risk, but, of course, he will need a different prescription.”
“I already switched him, and he’s doing fine. What do you think happened? Do you think this was a one-time event when something happened during the manufacture, ruining this batch of medication?”
“Doubt it. The discrepancy is so large, I think this company has some big issues. They may be taking shortcuts, maybe even faking some of the quality control reports. It’s happened before with a few generic manufacturing companies, especially foreign ones, although it’s been several years now since I’ve heard of any such incidents.”
About the Author
Deven Greene
Fiction writer Deven Greene lives in the San Francisco Bay area. Ever since childhood, Deven has been interested in science. After receiving a doctorate in biochemistry, she went to medical school and trained as a pathologist. She worked for several decades in that field before starting to write fiction.
Deven incorporates elements of medicine or science in most of her writing. She has published several short stories. Her debut novel, Unnatural, is the first book of the Erica Rosen MD Trilogy, and was released in January 2021. Unwitting, released in October 2021, is the second Erica Rosen MD novel. Unforeseen is the final book in the Trilogy.
GIVEAWAY!
Deven Greene is giving away autographed copies of the whole Erica Rosen MD Trilogy to one lucky person!
Terms & Conditions:
- By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.
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- This giveaway ends midnight December 30.
- Winner will be contacted via email on December 31.
- Winner has 48 hours to reply.
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