Unnatural Causes - Hardcover

Robinson, Leah R

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0380974592 ISBN 13: 9780380974597

Publisher: William Morrow, 1999

Synopsis

The life-and-death struggle waged daily in the ER is a constant, integral part of Dr. Evelyn Sutcliffe's existence. Her home is her refuge from the frenzy, the anxiety, the uncertainty, and the blood. But now a dear friend clings to life by the barest of threads: a colleague struck down by poison he ingested while cooking in Evelyn's Manhattan apartment kitchen.

On a night when she was supposed to be celebrating her anniversary with her significant other, psychiatrist Phil Carchiollo, and a few of their closest chums, Evelyn instead finds herself back in the emergency room, frantically trying to save a friend-and haunted by the knowledge that the deadly mushrooms he consumed were intended for on or more of her invited guests.or for Evelyn herself.

A murdered striking perilously close to home is not the only event disturbing Dr. Sutcliffe. She and the rest of the staff of University hospital are bracing for sweeping internal change, and for a proposed union walkout that could cripple the great institution. Evelyn fears the assassin may be using the ensuing chaos to mask any number of dark deeds. And now sordid secrets about colleagues she thought she knew suddenly come to light-as well as the contrivances of a beautiful stalker with lethal designs on Evelyn. And as a maelstrom of intrique, lies, deadly internal politics, treachery, and murder threatens to drag her under, Evelyn's own investigation reveals two unnerving but inescapable facts: a killer is near at hand.and the killings have only just begun.

About this title

Review:

If you like your mystery mixed up with fast-paced emergency room action, this latest medical thriller by Leah Ruth Robinson (an emergency room technician herself) is just what the doctor ordered.

In between treating a wide variety of walk-in disasters, Dr. Evelyn Sutcliffe of Manhattan's University Hospital has to sleuth out who poisoned the mushrooms that her close friends consumed at a dinner party. Her friend and colleague Gary Seligman, a nurse who is heavily involved in a nasty labor battle between two rival hospital unions, lies gravely ill in the hospital. Gary has enemies in high-up places. Another possible suspect is Elise, a troubled young woman and a former patient of Dr. Phil Carchiollo (Evelyn's boyfriend). But there could also be a connection to a top doctor at the hospital--who has his own dirty secrets to hide.

As Robinson did in Blood Run and First Cut, she first stuns us with a whirlwind of detail about daily life in an emergency room, and then, when she has our full attention, drops in extra characters and plot to dazzle and baffle us. Guess what? It works. --Dick Adler

About the Author:

Leah Ruth Robinson, the author of the novels First Cutand Blood Run, is a New York State certified emergency medical technician. She has served in the Emergency Department of St. Luke's Hospital (St. Luke's/Roosevelt Hospital Center) in New York City and taught Basic Life Support for several years at Lenox Hill Hospital, also in New York City. She is an active member on the national board of directors of Mystery Writers of America and is a member of the steering committee of the New York/Tri-State Chapter of Sisters in Crime. Married to writer John Rousmaniere, she divides her time between Manhattan and Stamford, Connecticut. She is currently at work on her next novel of medical suspense featuring Dr. Evelyn Sutcliffe.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0380974592
• ISBN 13: 9780380974597
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384