True crime is my guilty pleasure – has been for decades, and it seems the world is catching up, thanks maybe to podcasts and TV shows (ranging from sleazy and cheesy to straightforward factual documentaries). Wild Blue Press has published some interesting TC, so I was pleased to receive a copy of A. J. Flick’s Toxic Rage from WBP (and NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review.

This book tells a story would be perfectly told by Patrick Hinds and Gillian Pensavalle of the podcast True Crime Obsessed. It has it all: sex, violence, marital infidelity, drug addiction, and money. All surrounding what seems at first like just a sad story about a couple of ophthalmologists in Tucson, Arizona. One of them, Dr. Brad Schwartz, has a busy practice, and wants to expand the business.  He invites Dr. Brian Stidham to explore a move from Texas to Tucson to take over the pediatric patients, thereby freeing him up to work on expanding the business. Brian visits Tucson, likes how things look and moves west. One thing he couldn’t have discerned from his initial visit is Brad’s drug problem, which is serious enough for him to be the target of a DEA investigation. This makes it necessary for Brian and the office staff to pick up the slack caused by Brad’s absence, which they don’t mind at first as they think it’s an ongoing health problem (which it is, but not like they think!)

Finally, Brian has had enough and decides to open his own practice. He plans the move and hires a few of the staff who are uncertain about the stability of Brad’s practice, and when Brad’s parents get wind of this, they rat out Brian and Brad loses it. Brad tells his mother to fire Brian, which means the office now has no doctor.  
Brad’s wife files for divorce and his practice finally closes. He can’t practice or write prescriptions, is officially sanctioned by the Medical Board and has to basically start over, while Brian’s new practice is going great.

Brad’s dealing with divorce costs, alimony, lost income, the cost for the rehab he is required to do, etc., all of which set him back hundreds of thousands of dollars. Brad thought Brian was taking care of his practice for him while he was “away” (drug rehab), but he thinks that instead Brian raided the office and staff, taking whoever and whatever he wanted.

A few months later, after Brad has told apparently everyone that he wanted Brian dead, even telling his girlfriend Lourdes he wanted to hire a hit man to murder Brian, guess who ends up dead in the parking lot of his new office. Brad swears he had nothing to do with it, but maybe partly because he is such a jerk, lots of people are cooperative with the investigation into the murder.

Brad’s truly quite an unlikeable character: he tells a child’s parents that their kid needs surgery by saying “There are only two who can save your child: God and me…and God’s busy.” His primary girlfriend Lourdes is a prosecutor, and she kind of freaked out after Brad had told her numerous times he wanted to hire a hit man to take out Brian, and then Brian ends up murdered.

So there it is. It’s a fascinating story, and Flick tells it well. Four stars, sure to be enjoyed those whose preferred subgenre of true crime is what I call “domestic true crime. “