The Policy

Lynch, Patrick

ISBN 10: 1567403131 ISBN 13: 9781567403138

Publisher: Paperback Nova Audio Books, 1999

Synopsis

When ProvLife, a successful life insurance company, expands into health care coverage, Alex Tynan, a young financial analyst employed by the company, becomes suspicious. First of all, the statistics of the policyholders seem contrived and unrealistic. Alex also notices several of her colleagues suddenly make enormous amounts of money, while she must care for her aging mother and support herself on an entry-level salary. Then a company executive is found dead, after behaving bizarrely for weeks. When Alex is linked romantically to the dead man, she realizes that she has been set up in some kind of sinister game being played behind the closed doors of ProvLife. With violence exploding all around her and someone shadowing her every move, Alex plunges into no-man's-land where she can trust no one and nothing - not even the astounding facts that are staring her right in the face.

About this title

Review:

The two writers who hide behind the Patrick Lynch pseudonym can make a sore throat as scary as a Halloween movie, as readers of Omega--a thriller about rampaging streptococci--can testify. Here they tackle an even greater challenge: spinning tension and suspense from the heady world of insurance. Young, attractive math genius Alexandra Tynan has taken a job as an actuary at ProvLife, a good, gray insurance company in Rhode Island. The calm and steady work fills a need in her life. ("What's the difference between an extroverted actuary and an introverted actuary?" jokes a colleague. "The extroverted actuary stares at your shoes...") But ProvLife turns out to be a devious and dangerous place, rife with secret bank accounts and sudden deaths among its outwardly bland partners. The company has worked out a way to secretly test the DNA of people who apply for life and health insurance (a plot device so startling and believable that you'll chuckle out loud when you come to it), and the resulting edge generates huge profits--not to mention angst and greed. Even Alex's slick boyfriend is in on the scheme, which is played out against a perfect background of wintry New England rectitude. The Policy is another wickedly skillful winner from the authors of Carriers. --Dick Adler

About the Author:

Patrick Lynch is a pseudonym for Philip Sington and Gary Humphreys, whose previous novels, Carriers and Omega were both national bestsellers. Carriers was made into a TV movie and Omega has been optioned by Universal. The authors divide their time between London and the South of France.

About this edition

• Publisher: Paperback Nova Audio Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1567403131
• ISBN 13: 9781567403138
• Binding: Audio Cassette