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I always enjoy a well-researched novel so I must admit that Andrew Gross's obvious lack of adequate research on Type One diabetes, a condition of which I have a fair knowledge, had me squirming, since he chose as a protagonist Kate Raab, a lab researcher who just happens to suffer from the disease. Kate is contacted by her mother who tells her that the FBI has arrested her gold trader father because he has knowingly been working for drug-dealing Colombians. The FBI agents convince Ben Raab to turn against his best friend and give evidence against him in a trial. The pay-off is that the entire Raab family will go into the Witness Protection Program and be safe forever more. Ben would have to serve a prison sentence, of course, but it would be minimal. Naturally, the best laid plans of mice, men and FBI Special Agents gang go awry and when the Raabs are settled, Kate refuses to go with them. She is about to marry her boyfriend and has no wish to leave him. Even the shooting of her best friend doesn't deter her. All Kate wants to do is learn about her father – why the wonderful family man has been revealed as a scoundrel in the pay of Colombian drug lords. Ben, in the meantime, has been released from prison and gone on the run. Kate takes off in an attempt to find him and force the truth out of him – just who is this man whom she had adored for all her life? Quite apart from the various gaffes disclosing Gross' lack of knowledge of diabetes, the tale leaves a lot to be desired. The basic premise is unconvincing, the plot is unduly complicated, the characters seem like they're teetering on the verge of a hyperglycaemic coma and the author doesn't play fair with the reader. It is an unwritten law in the world of fiction that if the author discloses the character's inmost thoughts, those thoughts must be genuine. Gross breaks that dictum. He has the malefactor thinking things that are in complete contrast to what his real emotions must be. Not fair! I did my best to overlook the shortcomings of the research the author (had not) performed but even making such generous allowances, I found the tale less than convincing. Riding my hobby horse once again, I can only say that no doubt the author could have improved the narrative by a quantum margin had he only asked a Type One diabetic, or his local Diabetes Association (I assume they must have them in the US) to proofread the manuscript.
Reviewed by Denise Pickles, June 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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