The Policy

The shady death of a high-level insurance executive triggers suspicion in life-insurance actuary Alex Tynan, who thinks the management in her company is using the most unethical means imaginable to reap obscene profits. Reprint.

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