A Moment With… Dr Martyn Pritchard

Published July 28, 2026 | By Laura

I am pleased to welcome Dr Martyn Pritchard to Novel Kicks as we shine a light on his book, A Painkiller to Die For. It’s celebrating one year since its publication.

It was difficult for Will Jeavons to imagine just how his life could possibly get any better. Having overcome a traumatic childhood, he had gone on to study molecular pharmacology and win tenure as a lecturer at his beloved Cambridge University. But his life was soon to become better still, the CEO of a biotech company. Will’s unique research led to the discovery of a non-addictive drug for chronic pain. A remarkable solution for the opioid epidemic which had claimed the life of his mother.

Will’s flourishing company was subsequently acquired, and this was when he first met Celeste Simmonds. The beguiling Celeste would steer Will away from his earlier hedonistic, womanising lifestyle. However, the only way he could ensure the success of his drug was to bury key safety data which could have led to the clinical trials being terminated.

Clinical trials which resulted in the husband of Lydia Goldberg falling into a deep coma. It was Lydia’s scientific training which led her to discover Will’s fraudulent cover-up. She was determined to seek vengeance and concocted an elaborate honeytrap and a decision for Will to make. A career ending confession or being submitted to a life-threatening game of Russian roulette.

To talk about his experience with writing, it’s over to you, Martyn.

Why write novels? Why ‘A Painkiller to Die For’? A reasonable enough question, I suppose, to ask a career scientist who only passed his English Language O-level after two attempts. As with most novelists, I imagine, it was a combination of events which made me open up my laptop some 25 years ago and type those first few words. Those early efforts in the noughties amounted to a rather disjointed first 100 pages or so which were almost completely rewritten when Covid came along and the free time I needed to dive back into the book.

The overall premise remained pretty much the same, but the book turned out to be very different to what I had originally imagined all those years ago. ‘A Practical Arrangement’ was my first novel and came out towards the end of 2023 but not under my name! I used the nom de plume of Verity Trevethan as my assumption was that those few who ended up reading the book would give bad reviews. Poor Verity could shoulder the blame. But there were a few readers who wrote very generous commentaries and so Verity was outed to my family soon after publication (they never even knew I was writing a book!).

That experience gave me the courage to write my second novel under my own name. However, that was far from a risk-free option as my name was out there on the internet now all mixed up with entries from Martyn Pritchard the scientist which came as a surprise to many of my colleagues. Was I writing about me or even them?

Although ‘A Painkiller to Die For’ also leans upon my experience as a scientist, it is a very different book to my first effort. My inspiration behind the principal theme in the novel came from my brush with the more disturbing side of my profession. I would like to think that the vast majority of my fellow scientists are trustworthy and honest, but every profession has their bad apples. Those of you who have read about the OxyContin opioid scandal (Painkiller) or the Elizabeth Holmes fraud (Bad Blood/The Dropout) will be only too aware that my profession is wide open to abuse and I have used that rather worrying theme in my novel.

Of the book itself? Dr Will Jeavons is a hardworking and talented scientist. He has made the most of his abilities despite a troubled upbringing where his mother died from a drug overdose. In many ways his childhood trauma has provided the inspiration behind his life’s work – to find a non-addictive painkiller free from being abused. And Will is successful. Very successful. He becomes a Professor of Pharmacology at Cambridge University where he identifies a drug which ticks all the boxes. A powerful painkiller without the abuse potential seen with opioids such as morphine and fentanyl. His fledgling company is snapped up by an American pharma where he meets Celeste Simmonds who will eventually help save him from himself. His drug sails through clinical trials and is considered by many as the potential solution to the opioid epidemic that has killed so many people. But there is a problem. Of course there is! Will’s drug is shown to have cardiac toxicity but instead of disclosing this data to the regulatory authorities he buries the data. His strong belief is that the drug will save far more lives than might be lost to strokes or heart attacks. A gamble which is uncovered by Lydia Golberg whose husband suffers a stroke after taking the drug. Lydia was to become Will’s nemesis, kidnapping him with the aim of forcing Will to admit his secret by introducing him to a unique and deadly game of Russian roulette. The reader is invited to take sides. Who is right? Will or Lydia? Or maybe neither.

My third novel, ‘The Disappearance of Sarah Griffiths,’ is scheduled to be published later this year. My editor refers to it as ‘Breaking Bad’ meets ‘Gone Girl.’ Early next year should see my fourth novel in print which is about the next pandemic. I’m currently working on my fifth novel and taking a break from writing about scientists. It’s a ghost story with a twist. Maybe then I will consider myself a writer first and a scientist second. But I doubt it!

About Dr Martyn Pritchard –

Dr Martyn Pritchard is currently moving towards retirement following on from a 35-year long career in drug discovery research focusing on neuroscience as well as novel medicines to treat pain.