The Unstoppables
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Aug 18, 2026
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- $15.99
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- Pre-Order
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Richard Kline’s world is turning upside-down.
Soon after Ivy League–educated physician Dr. Kline returns to his hometown of Bay Ridge to take over his father’s medical practice, his dreams of a steady, conventional life begin to crumble. His wife leaves him; health insurance vultures have descended on his practice; a mysterious Russian woman becomes his new bookkeeper; and a patient holds him at gunpoint in his own waiting room. Kline seeks help from two long-lost childhood friends: Sal Bondini, the son of a notorious mob boss, and Sean O’Toole, a police officer at the local precinct. As boys, the three friends were constantly up to their necks in trouble. As adults, they now may be in over their heads.
Set in the colorful, old-world community of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn in the 1970s and early 2000s, The Unstoppables is a story about doctors and patients, seduction and violence, fathers and sons. Above all, it explores the joys and complications of renewing childhood bonds and is a moving testament to the friendships that endure.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Physician and author Biro (And the Bridge Is Love) delivers a predictable neo-noir about a Brooklyn doctor's checkered past. In 2010 Bay Ridge, an unruly patient starts screaming about his long wait time at Dr. Richard Kline's office and pulls a gun when Kline attempts to calm him down. Several days later, an auditor from an insurance company tells Kline that he's been put on probation for overbilling her firm, ordering unnecessary tests and brand-name medications. Then one of Kline's employees, Russian immigrant Natasha, reports that the unruly patient from days earlier has been stalking her, leading Kline to seek help from two childhood friends: cop Sean O'Toole and Mafia scion Sal Bondini. Flashbacks to the 1970s flesh out the trio's backstory, while in the present, Kline struggles to keep his head above water, even as his connection to Bondini compromises the credibility of his business. Biro makes readers feel Kline's desperation, and the historical chapters are rich with nostalgia, but there's little in the way of suspense or surprise to keep the pages turning. This doesn't quite come together.
