—A phenomenal read! The story line is both exasperating and inspiring. Is it a conspiracy or crazy thoughts? You have to read to the end to know for sure.

—I thoroughly enjoyed Mito. I didn’t want to put any it down.

—The incipient relationship between Gabriel and Renata, both in awful situations, was fascinating and I was intrigued by the very original theme of the book. I hope it really is a work of fiction!

—The plot was FANTASTIC. I’ve read a lot of stories about foster children, but never anything quite like what happens in Mito. I never even realized that medical kidnap could very well be a thing happening “behind the scenes” in foster care, but after reading this book my mind is blown.

Author’s notes may contain spoilers!

Toxo is book #4 in my medical kidnap files, but it can be read as a stand alone.  

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, medical kidnap is when a child is apprehended by child services because of a medical condition. It may be because his parents are not pursuing the medical treatment recommended by doctors (particularly experimental protocols), because the symptoms of the medical condition are mistaken for symptoms of abuse, because they decide that the parents are not qualified or don’t have the means to care for a child with special needs, etc.

After publishing book #2 in the series, EDS, I was contacted by the father of a child who had been the victim of medical kidnap. He had picked up the book because his wife has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS), but was struck by the fact that I was writing about the same type of thing as had happened to them. He told me a little bit about their son, who was back in their custody after a year in the system, suggesting that the congenital infection that had affected their son’s health and resulted in the apprehension would be a good condition to use in my next medical kidnap book. Book #3 (Proxy) was already out, and I saved the idea for when I was ready to write the next book in the series.

Some time later, a friend messaged me with a news story that she had come across regarding child services using faulty hair strand testing to prove that mothers were alcoholics in order to apprehend their children. Despite the fact that they had known for two decades that the testing was faulty and they were not allowed to use it in court, they continued to use it as a tool to apprehend children. That got my blood up, and I agreed it would be great for one of my books, and particularly good for the medical kidnap series. I began to map out the story I wanted to tell, incorporating the previous idea of a congenital infection that could cause failure to thrive and other suspicious symptoms to bolster the social worker’s case.

But I ran into one problem. The infection was perfect for my story, but when people finish one of my medical kidnap files, they typically Google medical kidnap to see if it is “really a thing.” If they searched for medical kidnap together with the infection that had been suggested to me, they would end up seeing all of the news coverage of the family who had suggested the condition for my series, including their pictures. They had moved out of state and were trying to go on with their lives and let time bury the news coverage so they could go on with their normal lives. I didn’t want to be responsible for bringing their case back out into the public eye again. So I searched for another condition that could cause the same symptoms. I found a few, but the one with the best potential was toxoplasmosis, which can cause some bizarre symptoms.

I also incorporated some other real-life scenarios, such as an arrest by a police officer who mistakes stimming for tweaking, social services putting the apprehended child into an abusive home, and so on.

And the rest…

Is Toxo

• Pinterest Board: Mental Illness
• Pinterest Board: Disabilities
• Pinterest Board: Medical Kidnap
• Pinterest Board: Foster Care
• Latent Toxoplasmosis and Human Behavior
• Gluten immune response after toxoplasmosis infection
• Toxoplasmosis and autism
• Toxoplasmosis and human behavior – the manipulation hypothesis
• How the flawed Motherisk hair test helped fracture families across Canada
• Motherisk hair test evidence tossed out of Colorado court 2 decades before questions raised in Canada
• Report of the Motherisk Hair Analysis Independent Review
• Findings in 16,000 child protection cases thrown into doubt

“Every single one of [P.D. Workman’s] books has spoken to me in ways no one or almost anything else has. And I have found strength in the books I’ve read.”

“The way that P.D. Workman writes just flows amazingly and allows the reader to get really invested in a book.”

“This is one author I certainly will be looking out for, I can’t recommend her enough.”

“I’ll read anything by P. D. Workman that I can get my hands on.”

“Every book by PD Workman that I’ve read has been a gripping one, however different the genres are, going from lighter mysteries to really dark ones… this is one of my favourite, most dependable authors.”

“P.D. Workman is an incredibly versatile writer. No matter which of her books I read I am drawn into a great story and honestly, I don’t think I’ve followed another author that could go from cozy mystery to YA to a PI series dealing with mental health issues. Really enjoy her books!”