Toxic Rage: A Tale of Murder in Tucson

Publisher's Summary

Brian Stidham fell in love with Tucson, Arizona, the minute he came to town. A young and talented eye surgeon, he accepted a job with an established eye surgeon to take over his pediatric patients. “It’s a beautiful place,” Stidham told a friend. “I can live right there by the mountains and go hiking. It’s a great deal for me there. The partner I’ll be working with is ultracool. He’s giving me the keys to the kingdom."

Brad Schwartz, the doctor who hired Brian, was ambitious and possessed surgical skills few others had. But he was a troubled man. 

Within a year of Stidham’s arrival in Tucson, the medical relationship would be severed by Schwartz’s personal troubles. Stidham broke away to start his own practice. Rumors abounded within the medical community that Schwartz was incensed and considered the departure a betrayal. His rage grew, even driving a wedge between him and his fiancée, Lourdes Lopez, a former prosecutor. 

Three years after Stidham moved to Tucson, his life ended in an empty, darkened parking lot. But who would murder such a nice man in such a violent manner? Lourdes, who had witnessed Schwartz’s toxic rage toward his former partner, feared she knew. But would her suspicions be enough to catch the killer? Find out in Toxic Rage.

©2018 A.J. Flick (P)2018 WildBlue Press

capital M mixed review

please excuse the lack of of grammatical conventions I am forced to use.

Having lived in the area that is the setting of this excellent black, I was extremely disappointed in the mangling of names such as Xavier Del BAC, Pinal County, and numerous others.

When the narrator speaks in his own voice, the narration is excellent. however, when he switches to any other voice, specifically when he's trying to act out different characters, it is horrible.

He makes natives of Tucson sound as if they were from the south. he makes women sound as if they have no inflection in their speech or whiny.

So, if you were able to stand those quirks, this is a great book. I mean no harm toward the narrator but I hope he will take this as constructive criticism. It is not hard to listen to a couple of newscast to see what a typical accent from Tucson sounds like.

It also is relatively easy to find the proper pronunciation of place names.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Laborious/Poorly written

Endless and unecessary dialogue. Grammar errors. Narrator's "voices" tended to be grating at times. The last few chapters were numbing.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Superb true crime.

Narration: Well done....each character beautifully rendered by believable variations in timbre, cadence, pace, inflection, accent--the works......Petpeeve: rote use of "he saids" and "she saids" is unnecessary, annoying, distracting, and reflects poorly on the producer's and voice coach's judgments. Not appropriate for instance to attach these conventions to dialogues between men and women older and younger characters, characters having predictably different accents associated with different cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

Story: Prococative, informative, enjoyable exposition of murder trial involving prestigious physicians..character development excellent, procedural and judicial proceduress profitably explained.

Highly recommended.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Poor storytelling! Excessive, contrived dialogue

Potentially good story told poorly. Narrator dis jis best, I'm sure, but very irritating book, what a shame!