The Original Piper Kearns

By: Michael Banas

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Piper Kearns is a former soccer star addicted to opiates after multiple knee surgeries sidelined her career. She lives in the North Philadelphia region of Kensington, a notorious sector of town known for its unhoused population and open heroin market. There she meets volunteer Vince Amato, a medical intern at the Philadelphia General Hospital doing research with world-renowned pathologist Dr. Donald Drake. Drake and his colleagues recently discovered a genetic marker at the cellular level termed the Doomsday Switch, which predisposes an individual to an opioid overdose. In parallel, a surge in overdose deaths occurs in Kensington in which its victims turn a ghastly shade of blue. The so-called Blue Plague quickly becomes the focal point of an election race for an open Senate seat, with candidate and Philadelphia Mayor Isaac Hightower under siege for his handling of the crisis. As the eyes of a nation focus upon Kensington, Vince and his fellow interns try to reset Piper’s life back to its original settings, void of opioids. As the body count rises and the election nears, it becomes a race against time for everyone involved to save Piper Kearns.
The Original Piper Kearns offers the reader a primer on the opioid crisis, an ongoing epidemic that has claimed the lives of over a half-million people since 2000, regardless of their demographic profile. The storyline highlights the struggles of an addicted individual and their battle to rid themselves of opioid dependency.