First, Do No Harm

Larry Karp

ISBN 10: 159058130X / ISBN 13: 9781590581308

Published by Poisoned Pen Press, 2004

About this Item

The past comes rearing up to bite the next generation when a son digs too deep into his family's past. Martin Firestone can't figure why his father, the eccentric painter Leo Firestone, is throwing a fit. All Martin did was tell his dad he'd been accepted to medical school. Then, Leo tells Martin a story about his own father, Dr. Samuel Firestone, an extraordinarily gifted doctor and a living legend in the small city of Hobart, NJ, but a man with a serious character flaw. During the summer of 1943, while Leo worked as Samuel's extern, he witnessed some highly questionable behavior. Illegal abortions, supplying heroin to an addict, black-market pharmaceuticals, babies sold to adoptive parents - all in a day's work for Samuel Firestone, M.D. When Leo decided his father was covering up a murder, he and his girlfriend, stage-struck Harmony, followed a trail of clues into the Fleischmann Scrapyard. There, they ran afoul of old Oscar Fleischmann, Samuel's longtime nemesis. By the time Leo realized he and Harmony were in far over their sixteen-year-old heads, it was too late to call off the investigation. But there are loose threads in Leo's story. Martin picks them up, and sixty years after the fact, goes snooping in Hobart. And like his father, he comes away with a whole lot more junk than he'd bargained for.

Seller Inventory # CIN159058130XG

Bibliographic Details

• Title: First, Do No Harm
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 159058130X
• ISBN 13: 9781590581308
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

Martin Firestone's acceptance to medical school triggers dark memories for his father, eccentric painter Leo Firestone, about the past and his own father, a gifted but ruthless doctor involved in such questionable activities as drug dealing, illegal abortions, black market babies, and murder, activities that could have profound repercussions for the present.

About the Author

Larry Karp's first published mystery fiction was a serial called Richard Richard, Private Dick, which appeared in a neighborhood newspaper Larry wrote, printed, and distributed when he was eight. First, Do No Harm is Larry's fourth novel, coming after three Music Box Mysteries featuring amateur sleuth, Thomas Purdue. Larry has also written long and short nonfiction, practiced perinatal medicine, and restored and collected antique music boxes. Larry says he's a New Yorker, though he and his wife have lived in Seattle for thirty years and counting. They have two grown children.