April's Affections and Intrigues: Love and Mystery Bloom

Venom, August 2010 by Joan Brady Touchstone Featuring: David Marion; Helen Freyl 372 pages ISBN: 0743270118 EAN: 9780743270113 Hardcover Add to Wish List Purchase Amazon Barnes & Noble Powell's Books Books-A-Million Indie BookShop

"Fans of Bleedout will be drawn to the continued intrigue surrounding David Marion and the Freyl's"

Venom
Joan Brady

Reviewed by Maria Munoz
Posted August 12, 2010

Suspense

Ex-con David Marion, last seen in Brody's Bleedout, must disappear after an explosive encounter with a hit man. David's efforts to discover who is trying to kill him eventually lead him back into the arms of Helen Freyl, friend and lover. Mourning David and intrigued by increasingly outrageous and mysterious offers to purchase the unique strain of venom created by the bees on her farm, Helen accepts a fellowship working for the Follaton Medical Foundation. In London, she joins a team on the verge of developing a cure for radiation poisoning.

But when her colleagues at the foundation begin to die, Helen starts to suspect the organization's purpose and motive. When she realizes her life is in danger, she looks for help and finds it in David. Together they fight for their lives against a background of corruption, corporate greed, and industrial espionage that has led to human tragedy.

Fans of Bleedout will be drawn in by the continued intrigue surrounding David Marion and the Freyl family. This international thriller takes readers from the suburbs of Illinois to the radiation-poisoned land of Belarus, with stops in Alabama and London. The tension slowly builds as Brady reveals the players in this game of corporate chess and what they're willing to do to win.

Learn more about Venom

SUMMARY

Physicist Helen Freyl owns a colony of bees with unique venom given to her as a childhood present. When her lover dies she accepts a job offer from a giant pharmaceutical company who are close to finding a cure for radiation poisoning. But when the mysteriously sudden death of a colleague is followed by another, Helen begins to doubt her employer’s motives and realises that her own life is in danger too.

Recently released from prison, David Marion doesn’t expect to find a hitman at his door. Their meeting is lethal – for the hitman! Warned that a secret organisation is after him, David disappears – presumed dead - until the moment comes for him to strike back.

As their worlds collide, David and Helen are reunited as they fight for survival against a backdrop of industrial espionage, corporate greed and human tragedy. Will they win through, or will the combined force of two multinational companies bent on securing the precious Venom prove too much. An exhilarating tour de force, Venom is a gripping novel that leaves you desperate for more.

Excerpt

'David?’

‘Yes.’

‘You know who this is?’

‘Yes.’

‘You’re alone?’

‘Yes.’

‘Get out. Now.’

There was a slight pause. David looked into the living room. The pale cotton curtains were closed across the patio doors; a light wind billowed them out towards him.

‘How many guys are there?’

‘One.’

‘Who?’

‘He’s a professional, David.’

‘Size? Build?’

‘For God’s sake, what does it matter? Just get out. Right now.’

David Marion snapped his mobile shut. When it had rung, he’d been in the kitchen of his house, folding sheets with the military precision that comes from years as a convicted man in a prison laundry. His cupboards showed the same influence: a couple of cans each of peaches, Heinz spaghetti, baked beans, spam, an aerosol of Reddi-wip. He shook out a pillowcase, tossed this whole store into it – except for the Reddi-wip – carried it to the entrance hall, set it beside the door and went back to the living room.

It was the end of March, an unexpectedly warm night in the Midwest; people had windows open all along the close where he lived. He shut the patio doors behind his curtains. Then he turned on the TV, lit a cigarette and sat down to wait.

But David was hardly a man at ease watching a TV quiz; he still had the Reddi-wip clutched in his hand when he heard a gentle knock. He balanced his cigarette on the edge of the ashtray and went into the entrance hall.

‘What do you want?’ he said irritably through the front door.

‘I’m really sorry to disturb you’ – the voice was frightened, wavery, old – ‘but I saw your light. My wife—’

‘I’m busy.’

‘I got to get her to emergency. You got to help me.’

‘Call an ambulance.’

‘Oh, come on, mister. Please help us. Please.’

David sighed, more irritably than before. ‘Give me a minute.’ He turned the key in the lock and leaned against the door while he slid back the bolt. The abrupt pressure from the other side was all he needed to know. He yanked the door open...

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