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Pub date July 15, 2025

Rowan Prose Publishing, LLC

ISBN 978-1961967540

Price $18.99 (USD) Paperback, $4.99 Kindle edition

Author interview

Desch’s sharp, emotionally charged debut blends psychological suspense with medical intrigue and personal reckoning. When a clinical assistant turns up dead, Dr. Leslie Schoen, already facing a career-threatening charge of stealing opioids, is pulled into a deepening crisis. As the DEA launches an audit and her colleagues retreat behind polite silences, Leslie suspects she’s been framed. But every lead is tangled in missing data, half-truths, and a workplace bristling with quiet hostility.

The novel trades spectacle for subtlety, finding its suspense in a clinic shaped by professional tensions, behind-the-scenes maneuvering, and the slow, suffocating rise of distrust. Desch’s prose is restrained but emotionally charged, and the domestic scenes between Leslie and Izzy anchor the suspense in something deeply human. With a strong sense of place, crisp pacing, and a narrator who can’t afford to make a wrong move, the story makes for both an absorbing mystery and a sharp indictment of how power protects itself. Lovers of morally complex characters, medical intrigue, and authentic LGBTQ+ representation will want to take a look.

A lean, riveting thriller about what it means to fight for your name, your truth, and the people you love.

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