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    Protocol
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    Protocol
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    Protocol
    Ebook383 pages7 hours

    Protocol

    By Kathleen Valenti

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    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 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.

    - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    PROTOCOL by Kathleen Valenti - A Henery Press Mystery. If you like one, you’ll probably like them all.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHenery Press
    Release dateSep 5, 2017
    ISBN9781635112405
    Unavailable
    Protocol
    Author

    Kathleen Valenti

    When Kathleen Valenti isn't writing page-turning mysteries that combine humor and suspense, she works as a nationally award-winning advertising copywriter. 39 Winks is the second of the Maggie O’Malley mystery series and follows her acclaimed debut mystery, Protocol. Kathleen lives in Oregon with her family where she pretends to enjoy running.

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    Reviews for Protocol

    3.5/5

    11 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Maggie O'Malley, fresh out of college, lands a job at a prestigious pharmaceutical company, Rxcellence. She's really interested in working toward a cure for cancer, which killed her mother, but winds up working on an acne drug. Not an auspicious start, but the pay is good and there's room for advancement.She has a second-hand cell phone and one night while out with friends from work, receives an appointment reminder for a meeting with a woman she's never met nor an appointment she never made. Shortly after she's stunned to find out the woman was killed, apparently in a hit-and-run accident. Then a day or so later she receives another reminder, and this person is killed as well.You'd think that would be mystery enough, but it's not. Maggie herself becomes the target of something sinister, she is suspended from work, and discovers that the dead people have a connection to Rxcellence. With the help of her childhood friend Constantine, she's trying to find out what the connection means, and who is framing her.I really wanted to like this book more, but Maggie doesn't seem capable at all. She's clumsy, breaks things, spills things, etc.; not the type of person anyone would want to have in a lab around breakable items. By the frequency of her little accidents, every vial and test tube should have winded up on the floor in pieces at some point. This is the one area I had problems with.Aside from that, the plot was very good, and there was just enough intrigue and suspense to keep one interested. I think my favorite character was Constantine, and I hope to see a lot more of him in future books. This is a first novel by this author, and as such, a worthy effort. I look forward to the next in the series. Recommended.
    • 5/5
      If you enjoy having your heart in your throat, white knuckles, holding your breath, this is a book for you.What an imagination this author has, a phone wiped clean and resold, and then, oh my, unbelievable, but yes this is just one of the horrors that wait, and thus you are going to be page turning.You become Maggie a young, talented, recent graduate, and walk with her as she begins her job, that seems to be a lifeline for her Dad. We never expect all that is about to happen, and why and who, and then when the answers start to come, you cringe even more.There is a bit of romance here, but lots of grief, and we want it to end, but is there a light at the end of the tunnel? Fast paced and get ready to plunge right in, you won’t be disappointed and it doesn’t take very many page for your heat to start pounding.I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Henery Press, and was not required to give a positive review.
    • 2/5
      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.