“Gutsy and loyal, Maggie O’Malley finds herself plunged into the corrupt and chilling world of big pharmaceuticals . . . a page-turner debut.” –Annette Dashofy, USA Today-bestselling author Freshly minted college graduate Maggie O’Malley embarks on a career fueled by professional ambition and a desire to escape the past. As a pharmaceutical researcher, she’s determined to save lives from the … to save lives from the shelter of her lab. But on her very first day she’s pulled into a world of uncertainty. Reminders appear on her phone for meetings she’s never scheduled with people she’s never met. People who end up dead.
With help from her best friend, Maggie discovers the victims on her phone are connected to each other and her new employer. She soon unearths a treacherous plot that threatens her mission–and her life. Maggie must unlock deadly secrets to stop horrific abuses of power before death comes calling for her.
“A page-turner! Smart, fast-paced and surprising.” –Hank Phillippi Ryan, Agatha, Anthony, Mary Higgins Clark, and Macavity Award-winning author of Trust Me
“A twisty and breathless exploration of Big Pharma and the drugs that can both save . . . and kill . . . If you like a book with smarts, a heart, and flesh-and-blood characters, don’t miss Protocol. This one is a winner!” –Maggie Barbieri, author of the Maeve Conlon Thrillers
“An exciting start to a new mystery series, Protocol offers up a fast-paced, suspenseful plot starring complex characters with great heart. Powerful, tense, and satisfying. Valenti grabs you from page one and never lets go.” –Wendy Tyson, author of the Greenhouse Mysteries
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A fabulous premise for a thriller! And i love Constantine and Miss Vanilla!
I enjoyed reading this book. Maggie has a new to her phone and a new job at a big pharmaceutical company. While out with friends she receives a reminder for an appointment she did not make with a person she does not know. When that person is killed she wonders about the connection and the previous owner of the phone. When it happens again and again and involves people at her new job she she sets out to solve the mystery with her best friend, Constantine. Trying to solve the mystery causes problems at work as she begins to uncover the secrets the company is hiding. I liked the mystery. There are lots of twists and turns and the solution made sense. Constantine is a fun character and provides comic relief. The ending was good but it was a little rushed. It was a page turner and kept me reading until the end. I am looking for word to reading the next book in the series. Enjoy
This one was hard for me to review since I really hate saying negative things about books and authors. It wasn’t that this book was horrible, it was fine, and had some good strengths. But I just couldn’t overlook some things.
The good first! I really liked the premise of the story. People at drug companies doing bad things are not hard to accept since we’ve all seen and read reports about this. And I love when a big, bad company gets taken down by the little guys. John Grisham, anyone?!?
And the science was well written. You could look at it deeper if you understand it or enjoy that type of writing or you could just read it and get on with the rest of the story.
As for the things that I couldn’t overlook it came down to the tech, an intelligent woman not acting it (or not being written as such to somehow progress the story), and blindly trusting a guy you just met over someone you’ve known for years and years.
When it comes to the tech, I had to look at the release date of the book to make sure it wasn’t published in 1997 instead of 2017. Some of the examples; an old id badge that still works (it would have been deactivated, especially in this sort of company), people in high ranking positions not having their computer password protected, files that are restricted just being there for any employee to look at. Either this company is still using protocols from the early 1990’s or something went wrong in the editing process. I could overlook one thing, but all of these, plus more, was just too much.
As for Maggie being an intelligent woman, which I believe she was meant to be, she was constantly contradicting herself. And although in many cozies the main character can be scattered, how else can you read a 250 page book if the sleuth didn’t constantly have questions and change her thoughts, I felt like this was meant to be more of a suspense then cozy, especially with the swearing and graphic crime scenes. I think if it was more of a cozy or more of a suspense, instead of something in between, I would have enjoyed it.
And finally, the whole trust factor between a guy she just met and a guy she’s known for years and has done nothing but be by her side… I just can’t. I realize the reason why, but to me that was sloppy storytelling.
With so many books and series out there, I don’t think I’ll be continuing the Maggie O’Malley Mysteries.
Fast paced and exciting. However for a smart woman, the main character makes a lot of unintelligent decisions. And for a researcher, she seems to do very little work.
Protocol is an intriguing page-turner that I couldn’t put down. The protagonist, Maggie, is likable, witty and smack dab in the middle of suspicious deaths and corporate conspiracy. Her bestie is the adorable Constantine. Together, they try to figure out why and how Maggie’s phone predicts death. The author brilliantly developed each character and the dialog literally had me laughing out loud (you know, in between all the murdery scenes). The ending had my heart racing. Overall, I highly recommend this book to any mystery fan and I’m eagerly awaiting Valenti’s next book!
Loved this book! Fun and nerve-wracking at the same time. Very clever, I can’t wait to read the next one!
Protocol by Kathleen Valenti is the first book in A Maggie O’Malley Mystery series. Maggie O’Malley has just started her new job as a clinical research associate at Rxcellance. Maggie is enjoying drinks with co-workers after her first day at work when she reminder for a meeting on her phone. However, Maggie did not schedule the meeting nor does she recognize the woman. As she is leaving the bar, Maggie glances at the television and sees a report about a hit and run accident involving the same woman. Maggie checks it off to a coincidence until it happens again. Maggie contacts Gus who purchased the phone for her. They start looking into the victims and find a connection back to Rxcellance. Maggie and Gus dig into the case and they soon catch the attention of the killer. Can Maggie find the necessary proof to put the culprit away before she becomes the next victim?
When I read the blurb for Protocol, I was intrigued. It sounds like a great medical suspense novel. However, the final product was disappointing (for me). The story lacks suspense or scare factor. I wanted to be drawn into the story and riveted until the very last page. Instead, I found myself bored and skimming to get to the end (to see if I correctly identified the perpetrators). I think, though, that some readers will be surprised when some of twists are revealed. For the most part, the book is easy to read and has a good pace. There are technical sections relating to medical research (medical conditions, chemistry, drug interactions) that slow down the pace (some of it is a little too technical for laypeople). The writing is unpolished. I wish the editor had given the book another going over and tightened it up. The book is too long and the author left some dangling threads at the end. My rating for Protocol is 2 out of 5 stars (I was not a fan). The big problem was the main character—Maggie O’Malley. She bumbles, stumbles, overreacts, loses items, breaks things and blushes her way through the book. I am surprised that she has not started an epidemic (by dropping something deadly in the lab). Maggie “trusts” a man that she has only been out with twice more than Gus she has known since childhood. She barely knows him, but Maggie is willing to risk her life for him. Most of the characters were not fully developed and the plot seems implausible (which I can overlook if the rest of the book was captivating—which it was not). I do want to warn readers that Protocol contains foul language and gory crime scenes.
Protocol by Kathleen Valenti is a mystery with a lot of information concerning the pharmaceutical industry.
Maggi O’Malley is a young woman who has landed her first job in her chosen field with a top pharmaceutical company. She’s excited to begin her job and trying to be more open to new people in her life. She was a strong young woman who is very close to her Dad and Aunt. Her best friend since grade school, Constantine, is very likable and was there for her very step of the way. Together they dig for information that will clear Maggi from suspicion as she seems to be drug into murder and dubious pharmaceutical ethics. Maggi and Constantine make a strong team as they work together and I was pleased to see that they might have more.
A steadily paced plot with characters that are developing nicely so that readers get to know them and enough red herrings and twists to keep a reader turning the pages.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book from Henery Press via NetGalley. All of the above opinions are my own.
Protocol by Kathleen Valenti is a thriller with Maggie O’Malley as the main character. She is just beginning her new job with a pharmaceutical research company, RXcellance.
The story has bits of wry humor mixed in the banter between Maggie and her best friend Constantine, or Gus as she calls him.
I won’t post spoilers, but Maggie’s problems seem to begin with the “New”-Used cell phone that Gus gives to her when she moves to her new apartment. An app on this phone sends a meeting reminder with the picture of a person Maggie does not know. Later she will discover the person has been killed. Odd things happen at the office which she can not explain and can implicate her in leaking company secrets. And that phone… is it haunted or is this a psychological game someone is playing with Maggie?
Be ready for mystery, intrigue, and suspense as Maggie digs up answers to her problems at the new office. How far will the powerful and rich within RXcellance go to cover up the unapproved testing and trial protocols while trying to launch a new medicine to make them big money. Scary Stuff!