UNNATURAL CAUSES

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.

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.