Critical Conditions

Psychologist Alan Gregory befriends a suicidal fifteen-year-old girl and her ill little sister, and when a high-level associate of the HMO that denied the child treatment with an experimental drug is murdered, he realizes that his patient is somehow involved. 60,000 first printing. Lit Guild & Doubleday. Tour.

Boulder psychologist Alan Gregory confronts a hapless family's mismanaged-care nightmare, in White's overstuffed sixth thriller. The toddler of Alan's newly transplanted colleague, John Trent, has been stricken with a rare strain of viral myocarditis for which MedExcel, the family's HMO, refuses the only available treatment as too experimental; meanwhile, his wife, TV news personality Brenda Strait, is being harassed by threats and vandalism. As their daughter Chaney lies dying for lack of funds, Trent wonders how much worse things could get. Here's how much: Brenda's daughter Merritt, 15, tries to kill herself, gets dragged back to life refusing to speak, and turns out to be hiding a handgun and a bloody outfit that tie her to the murder of Dr. Edward Robilio, the founder and chairman of MedExcel. Assigned to Merritt's case, Alan finds crippling new connections among the characters at every turn. His cop friend Sam Purdy is the brother-in-law Brenda's been feuding with for years. Dr. Terence Gusman, who chairs the medical exam review board at MedExcel, is the brother of a woman fatally traumatized by Brenda's hard-nosed reporting. Even Alan's urologist neighbor Adrienne, who's been sleeping with the Trent/Strait's lawyer, thinks she prefers the lawyer's wife. As he rolls like a fifth wheel from one crime scene to the next and struggles to get his mute patient to open up--even after she starts to talk, her shocking, predictable revelations are delayed by a series of shameless ploys--Alan goggles at the unholy network of lovers, codependents, and betrayers. The result is that White (Remote Control, 1997, etc.) loses his initial focus on the indictment of uncaring HMOs; by the time you stumble to the center of this labyrinth, you're amazed that the medical community can lift a finger to help this dysfunctional community. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In his sixth suspense novel, White (Remote Control, LJ 1/97) and his protagonist psychologist Alan Gregory take on managed healthcare and come up with another compulsive read. A 15-year-old girl attempts suicide and turns mute, her two-year-old sister is dying from a rare disease while her health insurer won't pay for expensive experimental treatment, and the doctor who heads the insurance company is found shot to death. While Gregory treats the teenager and consults with police, his cop friend Sam Purdy (an in-law of principals in the case) has to keep his distance, and complications mount. White ties up all the loose ends, concerning death threats, blackmail, murder, extortion, and suicide, after a spine-tingling chase through the conveyor system of the new Denver airport. But he leaves strings dangling regarding his appealing cast of continuing characters (such as Gregory's wife Lauren's health and neighbor Adrienne's love life), guaranteeing anticipation for number seven.
-?Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., Va.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

When Boulder, Colorado, psychologist Alan Gregory is asked to come to a hospital emergency room to consult on a puzzling case of attempted suicide by a 15-year-old girl, he finds a teen with more than her fair share of problems. Merritt Strait's mom is a TV investigative reporter; her stepdad is a psychologist handling custody evaluations; and their toddler daughter Chaney--Merritt's half-sister--has a heart problem that only an experimental procedure can remedy, but their managed care company, MedExcel, won't pay for it. Merritt is mute when Gregory begins to talk with her in the hospital; the discovery of the dead body of the head of MedExcel--and of bloody clothes and a gun in and around Merritt's room--suggests she may have a good reason for silence. Gregory proceeds patiently with the stalwart teen and more aggressively with various adults with the help of his police detective pal Sam Purdy. Given White's solid reputation and lively debate about the controversial issues animating his Alan Gregory thrillers, expect reader interest. Mary Carroll