Brain Storm (Angela Richman, Death Investigator #1) by Elaine Viets

The ultrawealthy families of Chouteau Forest may look down on a woman like death investigator Angela Richman, but they also rely on her. When a horrific car crash kills a Forest teenager, Angela is among the first on the scene. Her investigation is hardly underway, however, when she suffers a series of crippling strokes. Misdiagnosed by the resident neurologist, Dr. Gravois, and mended by gauche yet brilliant neurosurgeon Dr. Jeb Travis Tritt, Angela faces a harrowing recovery.

It’s a drug-addled, hallucinating Angela who learns that Dr. Gravois has been murdered…and the chief suspect is the surgeon who saved her life. Angela doesn’t believe it, but can she trust her instincts? Her brain trauma brings doubts that she’ll ever recover her investigative skills. But she’s determined to save Dr. Tritt from a death-row sentence—even if her progress is thwarted at every turn by a powerful and insular community poised to protect its own.  (Summary via Goodreads)

I am a HUGE fan of Elaine Viets as I have read all her books in her Dead-End Job Mystery series and her Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper series.  Those series were full of excitement and lovable characters and you cannot help but enjoy getting lost in the stories.  Brain Storm is the first book in her Angela Richman, Death Investigator series and it is also an exciting start to another amazing series however it is a little bit darker and one main character who you will fall in love with has a slight potty mouth to put it mildly.  I am sharing my thoughts on this blog only because of the fact that I shared the other two series here and feel you should read this series as well.

In Brain Storm readers are introduced to Angela Richman who is a death investigator in a wealthy area in Missouri called the Forest.  Angela is fortunate to live there due to her parents having worked for a wealthy family and her mother gave her the house upon her death.  Angela is on the case of a fatal accident involving teens who live in the Forest when she begins to get very bad migraines.  She goes to bed with a migraine and wakes up in the hospital nineteen days later and learns that she had six strokes and underwent brain surgery.  While Angela is in the hospital getting her strength back and learning to think, walk and everything else, the doctor that misdiagnosed her is murdered in the cafeteria and the neurosurgeon who saved her life is arrested for the murder.  Angela knows that Dr. Tritt did not kill Dr. Gravois but her brain is not working right and she can't be 100% sure she is doing and saying the right things.

Once you start reading Brain Storm, you will be pulled in and unable to stop reading.  Viets will have you so engrossd that you may forget to eat, drink, sleep and do other normal daily activities while you read.  I highly recommend that you set aside time to focus on this amazing tale and I highly encourage you to read the Acknowledgments at the end of the book so that you will really appreciate Viets story.  I was gobsmacked when I read it !!!