I have read all of the books written by Jennifer Jaynes. I enjoy her writing. She has a way of drawing you in and holding you tightly until the end. This book was a bit different from the others I had read. I wasn’t positive I would like it as much. I was wrong about that. I did not want to put the book down. I would call this a medical thriller. It is multilayered with secrets all around. In my opinion it is a well researched, thought provoking, gripping read. I highly recommend it. Read no further if you don’t want to know how this book was personal for me

My oldest daughter and her younger brother both had reactions to vaccines. Reading about Suzy almost had me hyperventilating. The scenario was nearly identical to what happened with my oldest daughter. The seizures that began after receiving a “necessary” baby shot have never gone away. Even though her seizures began while we were still in the doctor’s office, after the shot was administered, I was told it couldn’t be the shot. The doctor and nurses kept repeating that like a mantra. Fortunately it was the third shot so she didn’t need another soon after. In the months following the nightmare continued with her having multiple seizures every day. The doctor was ordering all kinds of test because the vaccine was “deemed safe”. When I had her brother I held off the shots. I was terrified. That was when the real campaign began. I was paranoid, (admittedly this was true, I was). I was harming my child. I was putting other children in grave danger. What kind of mother was I? Did I realize I was withholding medical care and could go to jail? Eventually they wore me down. I was scared to do it and scared not to. I really believed they would take my children from me. I gave in and he was given the first injection. He did not react the same as my daughter. However his thigh was swollen and extremely hard...even a month later. They assured me it wasn’t the vaccine. They gave him the second shot and his other leg had the same reaction. Long story short, my son had to have physical therapy from Easter Seals to learn to walk. My daughter has had to use anti seizure medication her entire life. (They are both adults now). Years later, it came out that a lot of children in the USA had reactions similar to those my children had. I learned that the dosage given to children here was the highest in the world. Europe had been successfully vaccinating their children with half the amount we were giving. It was at this time that I began understanding the money game in health care. I am very concerned with the way we are being told the best thing for children is a multitude of immunization and the everyday use of sanitizers. I am appalled at the number of vaccines a baby is given. I am shocked that instead of letting our children develop natural immunity and strong health systems, we are force fed the rhetoric of children are especially vulnerable to deadly illnesses. How in the world did anyone survive without all this that we do today? Not only did we survive but we were pretty much healthier. I understand that what I wrote may have a lot of people upset with me. I don’t mind. You have your opinion. I have mine. I honestly believe we over vaccinate and we over sanitize in this country.

I know Ms. Jaynes book is a work of fiction. I hope you choose to read it. It is a very good thriller. I hope you enjoy it. I hope you truly think about the subject. I don’t think what she wrote as fiction is very far from the truth. ( )

Parts of this book show the author's skill in writing a tense scene but she doesn't carry it throughout the book. Too much of this story is spent in the main character's head as he obsesses over two topics - prescribing an "immunoceutical" that may be harming children and whether or not his beautiful wife is cheating on him. Being in Daniel Winters' inner monologue is not a pleasant way to spend the hours. ( )

Daniel seems to have a perfect life: recently married to a gorgeous woman, a beachfront home, and a great job as a respected pediatrician. Things start to change when his wife, Mia, begins acting strange. On top of that, Daniel’s work is giving out a new vaccine, which could be dangerous, but he’s been asked to keep quiet about it.

Malice was quite the entertaining read. It focused a little more on Daniel’s work than I expected but that might be a good thing with all the spouse mysteries out there.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing me with an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review. ( )

Q&A Elevator Ride with the Author

The #1 USA Today and internationally bestselling author, Jennifer Jaynes returns following The Stranger Inside (#4 Stranger Series) with her latest emotionally charged thriller —MALICE, Coming Sept. 25, 2018. You are going to devour! Top Books of 2018 List.

The perfect life becomes the perfect nightmare in a twisting novel of twisty psychological suspense. Truth and deception. Trust and betrayal. The people closest to us may be the (strangers) we need to fear the most. How far will they go to protect their secrets?

MALICE is such a timely and electrifying novel ripped from today’s headlines. Jaynes brilliantly creates a terrifying scenario both complex and all too real.

"Psychological domestic suspense meets heart-pounding medical thriller." Think, Jodi Picoult, Liane Moriarty (Big Little Lies), Karin Slaughter, and Lisa Gardner meets Michael and Daniel Palmer.

As I have said previously in my reviews and reiterated here with MALICE: The author continues to deliver gripping, edge-of-your-seat crime thrillers solidifying her place alongside the best of female crime writers out today!

The setting of MALICE is in beautiful Malibu, California. Daniel has it all. The beautiful beachfront home in Malibu. The perfect career, the ideal wife, the perfect life. He loved just about everything about his job: practicing medicine, the patients, his colleagues. Even his mess of a boss, Teddy. Life was great. Until . . .

Daniel also has a darker, paranoid, and cynical side. He has an inner voice, which speaks to him throughout the book, as a warning (highly entertaining).

MALICE is written from different perspectives. The three main characters: Dr. Daniel Winters (pediatrician), his new wife, Mia, and Rachel (mother of Suzie-patient) and a few secondary characters. I enjoy this style, allowing the reader to experience the character’s emotions (and inner voices) first-hand.

Dr. Daniel Winters is living a fairy-tale life. He has a beachfront home in Malibu, a career as a respected pediatrician at a thriving Los Angeles practice, and a gorgeous new wife, Mia.

For a man whose past was rife with mental illness, addiction, and thoughts of suicide, it seems too good to be true. Soon the facade of Daniel’s perfect life turns deadly (both personally and professionally).

Daniel is a pediatric physician and runs a practice with Teddy. He has always respected Teddy. (a good ole boy type). Daniel has not always had this glamorous life. He has worked hard to push his past aside; however, his ongoing battle with his inner voice continues.

He does not trust women. He and his twin sister battled demons from their past with their father and appears all the woman in his life were beautiful. "Beautiful meant bad."

When he meets the mysterious Mia, he remains concerned with her beauty and a little paranoid. Always wondering what she is thinking or doing.

Soon after their honeymoon from the islands, he returns to his practice and discovers the medical practice is openly advertising a new immunoceutical vaccine, Respira and the pharmaceutical start-up, Immunext. This is puzzling to Daniel and he decides to do some research on his own. This is the first he has heard of this new drug.

In the meantime, a physician family is murdered. There are warnings. Could Respira be related to the murders? Now Andy, his friend is concerned plus he has a patient that is having serious complications after taking the vaccine. On top of all this stress, his inner voice is speaking to him.

Plus his new wife who insisted she wanted to keep to a waitressing job (even though she does not need to work), is keeping secrets and acting very mysterious. Is he paranoid about everything, or are his instincts correct?

Are they in danger due to the new drug? Is his wife cheating on him and if so, he must find out what she is up to. Talk about stress (both professionally and personally).

Heart-pounding adrenaline keeps the suspense high to the explosive conclusion! (would love to see a follow-up story with Mia and Teddy). With action-packed twists and turns and a cast of solid primary and secondary characters. (Teddy was one evil guy). A finely crafted plot, high tension, and moral complexity are just a few mentions in this riveting suspense thriller.

Risks of a new vaccination keep the pulse-pounding as well as Daniel and Mia's secrets. Jennifer most definitely raises the bar with MALICE—she is at the "top of her game!" She does this so well, I am hoping we see more of the medical storyline. (one of my favorites).

MALICE is a little different than the author’s previous novels. In the past, she has written crime suspense psychological thrillers centered around dysfunctional families, serial killers, and mental illness. Here there still is the psychological aspect, dysfunction families; however, with MALICE she adds social newsworthy highly-charged and controversial medical topics— real families are facing in today's world.

Wrenchingly scary. A terrifying tale of greed, tragedy, and murder— where either knowing too little or trusting too much can be deadly. Making readers think twice about a routine vaccination.

Jennifer explores many powerful themes in MALICE— such as love, marriage, family, motherhood, childcare, trust, deceit, mental health, betrayal, secrets, greed, power, politics, moral dilemmas, corruption, whistleblowing, murder, pediatrics, medical and pharmaceutical negligence, conspiracy, and malpractice.

Well-researched, I am sure with Jaynes’s integrative health background, and a mother of young children she is keenly aware preventive care is the cornerstone of pediatrics, and vaccination represents one of the most critical strategies in the prevention of disease in children.

However, public concern, both real and anecdotal, regarding the adverse effects of vaccines has been front and center since the time of the first smallpox inoculation in 1796. From too many vaccines leading to weakening of a children's immune system, the pincushion effect, to other serious side effects and health concerns such as autism and even death.

Controversy and public outcry have surrounded vaccines, particularly as certain states attempt to mandate them.

On one hand, such as the fictional book MALICE portrays— the damaging immunoceutical vaccine, Respira and the pharmaceutical start-up, Immunext, and the greedy physicians— however, the same real tragedy is occurring in our world today, harming our children, causing parents to doubt the doctors dictated by the giant pharmacy companies and their greed for money and power.

From malpractice, negligence, murder, and conspiracy. Some we may not even be aware of the damage until years later. Often this leads parents who want to protect their children to run in the opposite direction —refusing to have their children take any vaccines. Which is worse, the vaccine or the potential disease?

Jennifer dedicates MALICE to Colton Berrett— another vibrant young teen sacrificed by the HPV Vaccine. Heartbreaking, heart-shattering, devastating, horrific—and most importantly, unnecessary. Another tragic death of a child damaged by and caused by vaccines, and in this case, it was the Gardasil/Human Papilloma Virus Vaccine (HPV) that took his life. Colton is one of the thousands of severe vaccine injured children who ultimately lost his life and succumbed to the toxic travesty of vaccine injury and damage.

Readers if you have followed this story, it is tragic. Read More Q&A with Author

It is difficult for parents and grandparents to follow the advice of physicians and the medical industry when they do not always have their best interest at heart. It takes more education on the part of the guardians and parents of these innocent children to control their child’s health and make wise medical decisions regarding their health, as well as our own. We hold their lives in our hands.

MALICE is for fans of Daniel and Michael Palmer, Karin Slaughter, Lisa Gardner and throw in a mix of Lisa Unger, Chevy Stevens, and Jennifer Hillier to the ones mentioned above.

For me, Jaynes has always been a "rock star" and in my opinion a very undervalued psychological thriller author similar, to Hillier— until this past year when she received the movie deal. Here ’s hoping everyone discovers Jennifer Jaynes and her unwavering talent. Her books are ideal for prime-time TV or the big screen. She is a fantastic storyteller!

Looking forward to a prequel of The Stranger series. (now this would be a fabulous series for Amazon video).

With more twists and turns than California's Pacific Highway, MALICE is a chilling, terrifying, and riveting action-packed suspense thriller which takes Jaynes favorite brand of suspense to new heights as she continues to raise the bar.

A special thank you to the author, Thomas & Mercer and #NetGalley for an advanced reading copy of #Malice.

#JDCMustReadBooks

My Reviews:

The Stranger Inside
Don’t Say A Word
Disturbed
Ugly Young Thing
Never Smile at Strangers ( )