The Deception - Softcover

Reed, Barry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312964943 ISBN 13: 9780312964948

Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks, 1998

Synopsis

Twenty-one-year-old top-ranked tennis player Donna Ditullo is hospitalized as a suicidal manic-depressive, but with the help of an experimental antidepressant, Donna makes a miraculous recovery, until she leaps from a fifth floor, leaving herself comatose and her lawyers baffled. Reprint.

About this title

Review:

The Deception is a gripping thriller that delves into the complexities and mysteries of both the medical and legal fields. When tennis prodigy Donna DiTullio jumps from a fifth-story balcony in an apparent suicide attempt, many people want answers. What complicates matters is the fact that when she jumps, DiTullio is in the hospital for treatment of manic depression, though she is due to be discharged later that day. It is strange then, that after seeming to recover, the young woman takes a near fatal plunge. How could the doctors have misdiagnosed their patient's mental condition so egregiously? When lawyer Dan Sheridan steps in to sue the hospital he runs headlong into a powerful conflict with the Archdiocese of Boston, which owns it. The story that ensues is a gripping, well paced examination of justice and ethics. Author Barry Reed is a veteran trial lawyer, and his legal acumen is obvious as he leads the reader through this absorbing courtroom drama whose ingenious plot turns will keep the reader riveted until the very last page.

From the Inside Flap:

eed, New York Times best-selling author of The Choice, The Indictment, and The Verdict, comes a suspenseful psychological thriller and courtroom drama involving medical malpractice and sexual intrigue.

At seventeen, Donna DiTullio was a highly ranked tennis player with world-class potential. At twenty-one, she's hospitalized as a suicidal manic-depressive. But under the care of Dr. Robert Sexton and with the help of some experimental medication, Donna is ready to be discharged. Then, unexpectedly, she leaps from a fifth-floor balustrade, leaving herself paralyzed and near death.

Attorney Dan Sheridan is called in to sue the hospital and its owner, the Archdiocese of Boston. Sheridan presses his investigation against the powerful interests of the Church and the medical establishment, an investigation and subsequent trial that test all of his skill as a lawyer and lead to an ethical dilemma that will nearly cost him his life.

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0312964943
• ISBN 13: 9780312964948
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 422