Deadly Little Secrets: Medical Suspense, AIDS Crisis/ eBook Giveaway

Deadly Little Secrets: A Novel Rooted in History – Amazon.com

A.I. generated, this summary offers a solid OVERVIEW of DEADLY LIITLE SECRETS, my novel rooted in facts explores how those times helped set up these times in the USA. I’m offering the eBook version free from 4/20-4/25/26. If you download, please review. Thanks

Deadly Little Secrets: A Novel Rooted in History

Medical Suspense:

Setting: The spring of 1985 in the fictitious conservative seaside town of Corona Cove, California.
Themes: Religious divisions, the beginning of polarized public discourse, and the unraveling of long-held community secrets.
Author: Marla Miller—herself a psychiatric nurse practitioner during this era, felt like many medical professionals did back when we didn’t know much about the virus’s transmission. We did know how quickly it killed the infected.

Political & Religious Polarization: The town’s conservative leadership include School Board President Steve Wilcox, and medical professionals like Dr. Julia Brooks, who find themselves on opposite sides of this societal rift.
Central Friendship: The long-standing bond between Dr. Brooks’ daughter, Sarah, and Wilcox’s son, Mark, serves as the emotional core of the story as they witness their parents’ world unravel.
The Narrative Arc: As Loretta digs deeper, the secrets she discovers fill her with a mix of despair and curiosity, forcing her to question how well she truly knows the people in her own community.

The Early AIDS Crisis (1985)

By 1985, the medical community was just beginning to understand that the disease, initially mislabeled as “GRID” (Gay-Related Immune Disorder), was a global pandemic that reached far beyond a community that many did not care much about, gay men.

Medical Breakthroughs: 1985 saw the FDA license the first commercial blood test to detect HIV.
Public Perception: The announcement in July 1985 that Hollywood icon Rock Hudson had AIDS humanized the disease for the general public but also heightened local anxieties.
Stigma and Schools: Deadly Little Secrets focus on the town’s school board reflects real events like the Ryan White case. Ryan, a hemophiliac, was a teenager with AIDS who was barred from attending middle school in 1985. His family sued the school board and his case sparked national debates over safety and discrimination.

Political and Religious Polarization

The “religious divisions” mentioned in Deadly Little Secrets align with the rise of conservative and evangelical christian movements in the 1980s.

Divine Punishment Narrative: At that time, many conservative religious groups framed the epidemic as a moral judgment, which heavily influenced local public policy and school board decisions.

The Role of Nurses

High School RN/educator Loretta Castrini utilizes her network of nurses who help her collect facts about an accident that threatens Mark Wilcox’s life while she searches for reasons why so many parents oppose the sex education course she co-teaches at the high school that she, Dr. Julia Brooks and Steve Wilcox graduated from.

#medicalsuspense

A FREE eBook available on Amazon from 4/20-4/25/26. If interested, please download, read and review Deadly Little Secrets.

Thanks

Marla