Tainted: A Dr. Zol Szabo Medical Mystery: 1 - Hardcover

"An honest, compelling tale of life, death, and the mystery of all that lies in between." --Ray Robertson, "Moody Food"

"Pennie encounters magic - and so will his readers." --Cathy Vasas-Brown, author, "Every Wickedness"

"Canadian physician Pennie's mystery debut introduces a winning protagonist, an Ontario public health doctor and former chef . . . The appealing supporting cast includes a gorgeous female PI. Pennie, an infectious-disease specialist, makes the medical jargon accessible." --"Publishers Weekly"

"Pennie is a bright new addition to the Canadian mystery writing scene . . . "Tainted" is a must read for 2009. Best yet, it's the first in a series." --"Hamilton Spectator"

"A taut and timely work of suspense . . . Pennie builds tension perfectly, grabbing readers from the first page and keeping them entranced, both with the story itself and with nagging worries about the safety of the food they eat . . . Must reading for fans of Robin Cook and Peter Clement." --"Booklist"

"A timely, fascinating and scary simulation of the scientific detective work involved in an outbreak investigation . . . [Pennie] stoutly eschews the potboiler epidemic of gratuitous sex, wild derring-do and cinematic hyperbole for stark realism." --"Winnipeg Free Press"

"Fascinating and fast-paced, a medical thriller with the high-stakes tension of a frightening epidemic. Ross Pennie knows how to weave real science with crackling suspense." --Tess Gerritsen, author, "Keeper of the Bride"

"What works are the two likeable and convincing doctors and the scary plot. Pennie's message--that no matter how safe our world seems, it's still very fragile--is timely and true." --"The Globe and Mail"

In an affluent city perched on Ontario’s Niagara Escarpment, residents begin turning up on the pathologist’s autopsy table with what looks like epidemic mad cow disease. Zol Szabo, a public-health doctor and former chef, and Hamish Wakefield, a young infectious-diseases specialist, must trace the epidemic to its source while dodging the deadly prions that appear to have contaminated almost everything in the supermarket. Things spin out of control and more lives are threatened when a government-appointed investigator pulls rank, hijacks the investigation, and allows his inflated ego to supersede common sense. Incidents of contamination of the food supply are featured almost weekly in the news. In Tainted, the clock is ticking to discover the source of the disease before it can spread, while navigating the political minefield of the hospital and the media. A suspenseful and vexing medical thriller, Tainted comments on the vagaries of modern medicine, and explores the complexities of relationships between men: fathers and sons, colleagues and subordinates, gay men and their lovers. Tainted is a medical thriller that illustrates the potential disastrous consequences of misplacing our trust in those who manufacture our food and our pharmaceuticals.