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.

One evening, while looking for patient information, 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.

Erica is convinced something nefarious is underfoot. Unable to recruit the help of law enforcement in a timely manner, she realizes she must take matters into her own hands but is unaware of the dangers she is about to encounter.

 

Deven Greene recently spent some time with The Big Thrill discussing her latest thriller, UNFORSEEN:

Which took shape first: plot, character, or setting?

As with most of my writing, I first settled on the plot. I chose a medical area which has had many well-publicized problems in the past. The main character, Erica Rosen, and the location of her home and work (San Francisco) were, of course, pre-determined by the previous books in the trilogy. That’s not to say the action takes place entirely in San Francisco.

What attracts you to this book’s genre?

I have always been interested in crime, true and fictional. With my medical and scientific background, the medical thriller genre was a natural for me. Despite my knowledge, I still have to do a fair amount of research on the topics I write about, especially those areas not related to medicine and enjoy that aspect of writing very much. I like to learn about new things, and hope my readers do, too.

Was there anything new you discovered, or that surprised you, as you wrote this book?

Before writing this novel, I was familiar with the high profit margins enjoyed by large pharmaceutical companies and some of the legal but somewhat shady steps they take to ensure continued high earnings. While researching the pharmaceutical industry for this book, however, I was surprised by some of the blatantly illegal activities that have taken place in the industry worldwide. Even without breaking laws, it is pretty clear that pharmaceutical companies put a high premium on profits, with many companies now focusing on developing drugs that patients will need for life, guaranteeing a constant stream of income. Less research is devoted to developing life-saving drugs such as antibiotics that are generally used for only a short time.

 

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Fiction writer Deven Greene lives in the San Francisco Bay area. Ever since childhood, Deven has been interested in science. After receiving a Ph.D. in biochemistry, she went to medical school, obtained her M.D. degree, 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.

To learn more about the author and her work, please visit her website.

ITW