Book Review: Next In Line by T.W. Baker

Reviewed by Peggy Kurkowski

A small pharmacy team navigates adventures big, small, and magical in this deeply original comedic offering.

The team of Mortar and Pestle RX face a daily onslaught of customers, chaos, and countless near disasters in Next in Line by T.W. Baker.

The pharmacy team at Mortar and Pestle RX are an eclectic bunch: there is Mik, the frazzled head pharmacist; Monika, the organizational powerhouse; Janice, the social media-addict; Bronco, the “resident charmer” who diffuses trouble; and Sammy, the shy and clumsy intern. Together, the five of them confront new, bizarre, and sometimes hilarious situations that each day brings. For this intrepid crew, “the anarchy, after all, was a strange kind of comfort.”

After a brief introduction to these characters, the book brings forth a new adventure—or misadventure—in each chapter. From the chaos of misplaced and spilled medications, labeling errors, and knotty insurance complexities, the pharmacists find ways to work together and solve problems with laughter. After all, the customers at Mortar and Pestle RX have eccentric needs, including the man who claims his sleeping pill prescription is for his pet hamster. But there is much more where that came from, and Mik has his hands full trying to maintain calm with his boisterous bunch of colleagues.

While each chapter introduces a fresh emergency (and even the fantastical), the diverse strengths of the team bubble up to manage the situations, no matter how irreverent. Monika’s laser-focus and demand for accuracy helps Sammy overcome his early mistakes and gain confidence. Bronco’s warm charm and legendary wink capture the hearts of even the most bellicose customers, as well as his coworkers, especially Monika. Janice’s good intentions are often subsumed by her apathetic approach to her job—which requires a suspension of disbelief on the part of the reader—and can be blamed on her smart phone addiction.

The restocking and refilling of the pharmacy is a fertile playground for comedic interactions among the team, as well as the customers, including “The Great Pharmacy Robbery Incident,” which turns out to be something quite innocuous indeed.

But Baker does not stop with the mundane, oh no. The arrival of “magical birds” one day transforms Mortar and Pestle RX into a mythical place where Mik can understand their chirps about rescuing a rare and potent herb necessary for society’s survival. And then there are the “mini-Victorians,” who are fun size Victorian stereotypes who have traveled to the pharmacy through a mysterious portal. After each scenario, the team discovers the ways they have grown stronger. As Mik muses, perhaps “catastrophe was the best ingredient for forging strong bonds after all.”

Each scenario is creative, quirky, and somewhat separate from each other, almost like a series of The Office episodes set in a pharmacy. Character growth outside of the pharmacy is limited, and while some characters reveal superficial changes—Bronco’s new girlfriend, Sammy’s growing confidence in his job—they remain largely the same, existing to serve up lessons in leadership with a laugh track. The repetition of phrases about the team’s ability to bond and trust each other after every crisis can sometimes hit the same note too often, but there are well-turned laugh lines throughout.

“The formulary, it turned out, was more confusing than the instruction manual for a nuclear reactor. It contained enough fine print to wallpaper the entire pharmacy.”

Comic and episodic, Next in Line is the prose version of wacky, off-the-wall television sitcoms that pave the way for easy chuckles and workplace entertainment.

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