Customer Reviews

Unnatural Causes

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Janet Bettle's first novel, "Unnatural Causes" touches a raw nerve of justifiable paranoia. Approached by the gentle, dignified widow of a man who died painfully and inexplicably after a meal of chicken, crusading London solicitor Geri Lander accepts the food-poisoning case and finds herself pursuing a "super bug" which could bring down the British poultry industry, to say nothing of decimating the population. Caused by the overuse of illegal antibiotics in chickens, the super bug has proved resistant to medical treatment and, unknown to Geri, cases are proliferating.

Point of view shifts between Geri, the government functionary who has just completed a report a report on the hazards of antibiotic use in poultry and the agriculture minister who manipulates him to suppress the report. While I can think of a few things Geri should have done (like check hospitals for similar cases) the woman has a frantic life - she's a widowed mother at the helm of a struggling firm, with financial ruin lurking. There's also a bit of romance and a nice mother/son relationship in addition to the carefully plotted, wholly engaging, David-against-Goliath courtroom story.

While there is some very scary information in this book about antibiotics and the creation of superbugs than can pass from one species (chickens)to another (humans), the somewhat embarrassing romantic dance between the heroine (who is, of course, tall and beautiful and smart) and a professor/expert witness gets in the way of the story. The good people in this book are very very good and the bad people are very very bad; there's no shading to the primary characters. Oddly, the secondary characters have more depth and are more believable--except, naturally--for the second-tier villains. A high level of predictability detracts from the story, but readers will definitely think twice before they eat their next piece of chicken.

Though he was fifty-four years old, Dr. Thomas Pascoe was inperfect health. His grieving widow Joanna rejects the idea that hejust died from tainted chicken. Unable to obtain satisfactory answers from the medical community or the government, Joanna turns to attorney Geri Lander, whose firm has earned the reputation for its in depth handling of personal injury cases.

Though her company faces an immediate money problem. Geri accepts the Pascoe case on a contingent fee basis. This angers her partners, who want to accept cash only clients regardless of legal need, but she sticks to her beliefs that the firm adhere to its expertise. As she struggles with her own peers, Geri learns that Thomas did not die from simple food poisoning. His death was caused by a super-bug bacterium passed from chickens to humans. However, the various bureaucracies come together in an attempt to thwart Geri's efforts to attain the full truth into the use of antibiotic feeding of chickens.

UNNATURAL CAUSES is a great legal thriller that hits hard on two fronts. The exciting tale centers on the impact of what is happening to our food supply in the name of profits. The way the various organizations bind together will remind the audience of President Eisenhower's warnings to beware of the military-industrial consortium. The subplot involving Geri's struggles as a single mother and professional makes her seem human with frailties even as she goes to battle the seemingly invincible enemies. Janet Bettle provides a fabulous legal thriller that holds its own with the best of the best.

Harriet Klausner