(AUDIO) BOOK REVIEW

Overdosing On Prescription Medicine

Book review of Unnatural Causes by Dawn Eastman

After reading The Coroner by Jennifer Graeser Dornbush, I looked at the suggestions on Audible, based on my listening history. I love stories about crimes, and coming at it from all kinds of angles, be it detectives trying to solve a case, a pathologist helping to solve the case or the court case after they have apprehended the perpetrator.

You can say that this was why this title and cover caught my attention: Unnatural Causes by Dawn Eastman.

About the author, Dawn Eastman

As always when listening to books of authors who are unknown to me, I try to find more information on them. Most authors have their own websites where they disclose a bit more about themselves, and at one time Dawn Eastman must have done the same, as I found a link to the website, but unfortunately it showed only a critical error and wasn’t accessible.

However, I found enough information about the author, looking at many book sites.

Dawn Eastman was a family medicine physician in Michigan and lived there for many years before moving to Iowa, where she now lives with her husband, son, daughter, and an extremely bossy Bichon-shin tzu mix. She writes between chauffeuring kids and catering to the whims of their dog, who wants to rule the world.

When the author was ten years old, her favorite pastimes were climbing trees and reading books — I can totally relate to this! Dawn discovered combining her two favorite things meant she could hide from her mother when she was actually supposed to clean her room!

Already as a child, Dawn aspired to be an author, but she became a doctor instead. During those years practicing as a doctor, she knew she was destined to be a writer, and finally gave in to her passion, bringing out her first mystery novel in 2013.

Dawn Eastman is the bestselling author of the Family Fortune mysteries, including Pall In The Family (2013), Be Careful What You Witch For (2014), A Fright To The Death (2015), and An Unhappy Medium (2016). Another series is the Katie LeClair books, of which Unnatural Causes (2017) is the first one. The other in this series is Do No Harm (2018).

It couldn’t find any other titles by Dawn Eastman after 2018.

Katie LeClair and the small town practice

After years of studying and internships, Dr. Katie LeClair is ready to settle down, and agrees to join the medical practice of father and son, Emmett and Nick. She hopes to finally settle down in Baxter, Michigan, but three months into working there, a patient of her — Ellen Riley — dies of an overdose.

Ellen has overdosed on diazepam, and the prescription has Katie’s name on it. Only thing is that Katie knows she hasn’t prescribed it to her patient.

The police don’t treat Ellen’s home as a crime scene, as the cause of death seems obvious. However, with the knowledge she hasn’t written the prescription, and then Ellen’s daughter Beth, and her second husband, Christopher, don’t believe Ellen has killed herself.

Only when the autopsy reveals Ellen has died from an injection of Demerol, the picture changes.

Katie’s experience of diagnosing diseases now serves her well, as it looks remarkably similar to the skills a detective needs. She starts to dig and goes down a rabbit hole where she finds discrepancies in Nick’s prescriptions to the patients of his pain clinic, where they receive prescriptions for drugs they don’t need.

Then she also discovers Ellen has had an unexplained interest in color blindness. A random remark makes Katie look for Ellen’s notebook.

Bit by bit Katie uncovers more things, but there’s someone out there who doesn’t want her to find answers, which is why she receives threats at her home.

Who has something they want to hide at all costs?

An enjoyable read

I enjoyed getting to know the character of Dr. Katie LeClair, not only through her investigation of Ellen’s death but also how her brother helped her, and the interest she developed for Dr. Matt Gregor, the doctor who was in charge when Ellen died in hospital after being rushed there. I liked her inquisitive mind, and how she connected the dots and effectively did the work the police chief John Carlson should have done.

All characters in the book are well written, making you either like a character all not, something I think the author has intended to do.

That said, the book is predictable in some places, so if you like dark, psychological thrillers, this is not for you. If you like a book which is not to fast-paced and the tension builds well, this is for you.

Enjoy!

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