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Brain Storm
(2016)(The first book in the Angela Richman, Death Investigator series)
A novel by Elaine Viets
The ultrawealthy families of Chouteau Forest may look down on a woman like death investigator Angela Richman, but they also rely on her. When a horrific car crash kills a Forest teenager, Angela is among the first on the scene. Her investigation is hardly underway, however, when she suffers a series of crippling strokes. Misdiagnosed by the resident neurologist, Dr. Gravois, and mended by gauche yet brilliant neurosurgeon Dr. Jeb Travis Tritt, Angela faces a harrowing recovery.
It’s a drug-addled, hallucinating Angela who learns that Dr. Gravois has been murdered…and the chief suspect is the surgeon who saved her life. Angela doesn’t believe it, but can she trust her instincts? Her brain trauma brings doubts that she’ll ever recover her investigative skills. But she’s determined to save Dr. Tritt from a death-row sentence—even if her progress is thwarted at every turn by a powerful and insular community poised to protect its own.
Genre: Mystery
It’s a drug-addled, hallucinating Angela who learns that Dr. Gravois has been murdered…and the chief suspect is the surgeon who saved her life. Angela doesn’t believe it, but can she trust her instincts? Her brain trauma brings doubts that she’ll ever recover her investigative skills. But she’s determined to save Dr. Tritt from a death-row sentence—even if her progress is thwarted at every turn by a powerful and insular community poised to protect its own.
Genre: Mystery
Praise for this book
"Elaine Viets’s newest is both a timely medical drama and a compelling mystery. Brain Storm gives us a detailed look at the shattered life of a determined death investigator. Readers will want more of Angela Richman’s adventures." - Jeff Abbott
"A very powerful and unusual novel. I think you’ve got everything here that a reader loves—a hospital drama and thriller, a strong central character. Made much more interesting because the central character is a very unreliable narrator." - Ann Cleeves
"In Brain Storm, Elaine Viets takes a dangerous turn down a dark alley but manages it with panache and a touch of humor. Angela Marie Richman is a kick-ass protagonist who is victimized by the thing we all fear most—our own mortality. This is territory Viets knows well, and she does a nice job of showing the readers the terrain, all while entertaining them." - Reed Farrel Coleman
"In her thrilling new series debut, Brain Storm, Elaine Viets calls upon her own challenging life experience in introducing Angela Richman, a death investigator working for upper-class Chouteau County in Missouri. Like Viets, Angela suffered a series of strokes and this death investigator is now struggling—in the midst of her recovery—to investigate a homicide that put her lifesaving neurosurgeon Dr. Jeb Travis Tritt in jail. Crisply written, with deft characterizations and action, Viets tells a tale that only she could have written." - Brendan DuBois
"Haunting and creepy, with a fast-paced, twisty plot, and a protagonist you will not soon forget—this is Elaine Viets at her most deliciously dark." - David Ellis
"A huge welcome to Angela Marie Richman, an edgy death investigator with a rapier wit and even sharper powers of observation, who makes her debut in Elaine Viets’s Brain Storm. I loved the deadpan humor from this character, a tough broad who’s survived with a vengeance and has scores to settle." - Hallie Ephron
"Trapped in a nightmarish world after suffering six strokes, death investigator Angela Richman finds she can’t trust anyone—including her own mind. A thrilling, suspenseful, twist-filled read that kept me up late into the night, Brain Storm marks a fascinating new direction for a wonderfully talented writer." - Alison Gaylin
"Elaine Viets has written the exciting first book in a multilayered crime novel series. Angela Richman is not only an investigator but a victim in this complex novel of crime, punishment, and medical malfeasance." - Charlaine Harris
"With Brain Storm, Elaine Viets offers readers a rare gem, a mystery that not only engages the head but also compels the heart. Following a near-fatal stroke, death investigator Angela Richman must struggle to regain her physical and mental health, while at the same time trying to solve the murder of the inept doctor she blames for her predicament. Drawing on her own experience, Viets chronicles the harrowing journey back from the brink of death. And perhaps the most amazing aspect of the novel is that in the midst of such terrible darkness, Viets manages to deliver hilarious one-liners any comedian would envy." - William Kent Krueger
"I’ve been a fan of Elaine Viets’s books since she debuted her leather-clad heroine Francesca Vierling. And now I am delighted to see her give us another strong female character we can root for—death investigator Angela Richman. I’m also stoked to see Elaine venture into darker territory with Brain Storm, a multilayered mystery that is rich in its sense of place and character and propelled with medical intrigue. Brain Storm has everything I love in crime fiction—complexity, intelligence, pretzel-plotting, and a touch of dark humor." - P J Parrish
"A very powerful and unusual novel. I think you’ve got everything here that a reader loves—a hospital drama and thriller, a strong central character. Made much more interesting because the central character is a very unreliable narrator." - Ann Cleeves
"In Brain Storm, Elaine Viets takes a dangerous turn down a dark alley but manages it with panache and a touch of humor. Angela Marie Richman is a kick-ass protagonist who is victimized by the thing we all fear most—our own mortality. This is territory Viets knows well, and she does a nice job of showing the readers the terrain, all while entertaining them." - Reed Farrel Coleman
"In her thrilling new series debut, Brain Storm, Elaine Viets calls upon her own challenging life experience in introducing Angela Richman, a death investigator working for upper-class Chouteau County in Missouri. Like Viets, Angela suffered a series of strokes and this death investigator is now struggling—in the midst of her recovery—to investigate a homicide that put her lifesaving neurosurgeon Dr. Jeb Travis Tritt in jail. Crisply written, with deft characterizations and action, Viets tells a tale that only she could have written." - Brendan DuBois
"Haunting and creepy, with a fast-paced, twisty plot, and a protagonist you will not soon forget—this is Elaine Viets at her most deliciously dark." - David Ellis
"A huge welcome to Angela Marie Richman, an edgy death investigator with a rapier wit and even sharper powers of observation, who makes her debut in Elaine Viets’s Brain Storm. I loved the deadpan humor from this character, a tough broad who’s survived with a vengeance and has scores to settle." - Hallie Ephron
"Trapped in a nightmarish world after suffering six strokes, death investigator Angela Richman finds she can’t trust anyone—including her own mind. A thrilling, suspenseful, twist-filled read that kept me up late into the night, Brain Storm marks a fascinating new direction for a wonderfully talented writer." - Alison Gaylin
"Elaine Viets has written the exciting first book in a multilayered crime novel series. Angela Richman is not only an investigator but a victim in this complex novel of crime, punishment, and medical malfeasance." - Charlaine Harris
"With Brain Storm, Elaine Viets offers readers a rare gem, a mystery that not only engages the head but also compels the heart. Following a near-fatal stroke, death investigator Angela Richman must struggle to regain her physical and mental health, while at the same time trying to solve the murder of the inept doctor she blames for her predicament. Drawing on her own experience, Viets chronicles the harrowing journey back from the brink of death. And perhaps the most amazing aspect of the novel is that in the midst of such terrible darkness, Viets manages to deliver hilarious one-liners any comedian would envy." - William Kent Krueger
"I’ve been a fan of Elaine Viets’s books since she debuted her leather-clad heroine Francesca Vierling. And now I am delighted to see her give us another strong female character we can root for—death investigator Angela Richman. I’m also stoked to see Elaine venture into darker territory with Brain Storm, a multilayered mystery that is rich in its sense of place and character and propelled with medical intrigue. Brain Storm has everything I love in crime fiction—complexity, intelligence, pretzel-plotting, and a touch of dark humor." - P J Parrish
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