Law and Addiction

Excellent mix of thriller, law, corporate greed, drug addiction epidemic. The timeliness adds to the tension of the excellent writing and authentic characters.

I’ve read a couple of books by Mike Papantonio and have enjoyed them all. They are all easy to read and fast paced. I highly recommend this book.

This is a timely legal thriller. Our country is facing a crisis in the our communities as we deal every day with new opiod overdoses. The cost is more than we should be willing to accept.

I had some complaints about this book, but after closing it, I realized my complaints were perhaps petty, but also a good strategy to sharing the more important message of this story.

We are given a perfect hero. He has had some challenges in his life, but he is a crusader and he's smart and kind and able to get things done. He interacts with other perfect people who cherish their wives, work upstream, but still have plenty of money to fly around on private jets. Some of this was hard to swallow in the moment. However, what this group of really good people set out to accomplish and the battle they have on their hands may require really good people.

What Papantonio does very well in this novel is to shine a light and humanize the opiod crisis. We go into West Virginia and see all of the different mechanisms at work. As readers, we get to see the desolation and heartache the influx of drugs have caused. We get a taste of addicts, people in recovery, drug mules, and people who take advantage of the situation financially.

There was a lot of sitting around and discussing next steps as our dream team of lawyers plotted their next moves, but this never felt unneccessary or repetitive. During the course of the story there was also love, friendship, humor, grittiness, twists and turns.

The author is clearly well-versed in this type of law and in this growing crisis. This is a book people should read to help understand why the opiod crisis is not going away and why each of us should care.

I want to thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Before I read this book I checked the author out. Mike Papantonio is one of the good guys that make a difference as he battles the big 'untouchable' companies through the courts that put profit before people. I instantly liked this man and as I read his book I knew why he is so darn good at his job. He knows how to connect with ordinary people. This is his third book, my first, and he has gained another follower in me.
The main characters that he writes about have a warmth about them that is instantly likeable. Jake is like that, one week before he graduates as a lawyer he is called home because his twin Blake had died of an overdose. From the first meeting with Jake, it was like I could feel that a part of him was missing and he would never be the same again. While he has been away his home town had succumbed to the quick fix doctor prescriptions of wonder pills that cured all ailments. Within months people were hooked on them. The death toll from overdoses across all the states hit a record high and was still climbing while the pharmaceutical companies produced more. Jake was determined to make them take responsibility.
The story has heart, it has courage and danger, everything a good fiction story needs. Besides Jake, one of my favourite characters has to be Deke. Deke was a top-notch lawyer that Jake inspired to be like. Clever, witty and successful, he had fought and won huge lawsuits against the giants that used people like fodder to feed their bank balances.
A brilliant storyline that gets a point across in a way people will remember. Highly recommended.
I wish to thank NetGalley and the publisher for an e-copy of this book which I have reviewed honestly.

Law and Addiction was an incredibly powerful, thought provoking novel. I was pulled right in from Chapter One and could not put it down. I felt a range of emotions throughout the novel, anger, compassion, hurt – but definitely a lot of anger.

The story begins with the death of Blake, Jake’s fraternal twin from an overdose. Jake, who was just finishing law school, is shattered as he never saw the signs of addiction in his brother. He is left wondering how did this happen, could he have done more, should he have seen the signs and so many more emotions. His hometown has been ravaged by opioids – people he has known his whole life are struggling with addiction. The town has quickly become a ‘zombie land’, where there is no hope, poverty and the citizens are feeling the physical and mental damage from opioids. The book really brings home that addiction is not always what you believe it is – any one can suffer from addiction and we need to pull apart the stigma of addiction, so that they can receive help.

Jake (like so many of us), feels anger – anger for his brother and the people of this town. But when he starts to do some digging, the facts that he finds is astonishing and he knows that he wants to make a difference, to ensure that no one suffers the loss he felt. He is prepared to go to war with the pharmaceutical companies to ensure that this is stopped.

As he begins his lawsuit (with the help of two other lawyers) against the pharmacy companies, the story really speeds up. We uncover bribes, death threats, illegal distribution and the list goes on. The story has so many working parts but it never feels overwhelming. Instead, you realize how far people will go for financial gain and corporate greed. It leaves you feeling disappointed with people but with some hope that there are still good people out there fighting for the rights and protection of all people.

This is an amazing novel from start to finish – a definite must read novel. The plot was fantastic – not what I was expecting but incredible all the same. It was educational but entertaining, but definitely leaves you with a lot of food for thought.