J.T. Kelly’s Fourth Book is a Classic

Author J.T. Kelly says that readers of his International Thriller series should be familiar with a villain named Adamis Baum. In Formula for a Felony, he believed the earth could not sustain the world’s population because of its dwindling natural resources. As a result, the terrorist and his minions planned to annihilate billions of people by dispersing a deadly virus into the world’s water systems.

To protect his faithful from the virus, Baum forced a hostile takeover of the pharmaceutical company NuPharma. Its drug, RGB101, offered phenomenal healing powers – even as a cure for the virus. Fortunately, Interpol tracked down Baum and ended his life before he could implement his scheme. In an ironic twist, protagonist Jack McCabe turned out to be the closest living relative to Baum and inherited NuPharma.

In Formula for a Felony, McCabe has submitted RGB101 for FDA clinical trials, hoping to treat patients with heart disease and diabetes. The NuPharma team is unaware of a corrupt pharmaceutical lobby known as the Consortium that’s opposed to the FDA approval. Karsen Ojin, a wealthy power broker, has nearly amassed a controlling interest in the six pharmas behind it. These companies produce products that are already successful in the markets NuPharma hopes to compete.

The Consortium’s fears of RGB101 cutting into their profits lead to a series of felonies to stop the new competitor in its tracks. Along with murderers and kidnappers, the pharmaceutical lobby has two unscrupulous senators in its pocket. Ojin’s beguiling enforcer uses her contacts in the underworld to achieve the lobby’s ruthless agenda.

J.T. Kelly gained a love for the European continent while living in Rome, Italy, for a year and traveling extensively during his junior year as a Notre Dame student. He combined this experience with fond memories of summer vacations at Lake Maxinkuckee in northern Indiana.

In his first three novels, Fair Ways and Foul Plays, Deadly Defiance, and Suite Suspicion, Kelly employs many of the same characters. Readers will find villains led by ruthless madmen. Then there are neo-Nazi criminals who come to the Lake Maxinkuckee area from Warsaw. Fortunately, the bearded Culver police detective and his elderly deputy try to keep order. Kelly believes they somewhat resemble Sherlock Holmes and Watson, especially in the later books.

Although they don’t have a role in the latest book, another group of fictional characters are the descendants of Potawatomi Indians who now live near the lake. Stories describe their ancestors’ journey to the lake and a forced exodus west for many of them. Kelly says that the current Potawatomi family has kept many of its tribe’s customs. Events in their lives create fascinating and sometimes otherworldly episodes.

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