Hard Case

In the fifth series title by the author of On My Honor, Chicago freelance journalist Cat Marsala is investigating teamwork at a hospital trauma center when Dr. Edith Crosstant, Director of Trauma Services, is murdered, possibly by a "teammate."

Detection becomes secondary-and tedious-in this latest Cat Marsala story, which seems less a mystery than a paean to doctors involved in emergency care. At a Chicago hospital to write a story on its trauma center, free-lance journalist Cat has barely learned her way around the unit when she finds Dr. Hannah Grant, its new director, dead in the staff lounge, suffocated by gauze stuck down her throat with a tongue depressor. Det. Sgt. Robert Hightower, though annoyed by Cat's desire to help with the case, is clearly not bright enough to solve it alone, so Cat chats with members of the medical team to determine motive and opportunity. In a busy trauma section, it is difficult to establish who was where and when; D'Amato, author of last year's estimable Hard Women, has a disappointingly colorless Cat drag readers through the dreary details of staff comings and goings until it is difficult to care who murdered Grant. By the time another doctor is killed, the story is beyond resuscitation. Maybe in her next adventure Cat will land on all four feet.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Dispatched to Chicago's Motriss/Beale Trauma Center for a routine article, freelance reporter Cat Marsala (Hard Women, 1993, etc.) is right on the scene when no-nonsense Dr. Hannah Grant, recently appointed director of trauma services, is found dead with a surgical sponge shoved down her throat. The manner of her death indicates a planned murder by a professional colleague. But who would've been able to get away from the hectic trauma floor long enough to kill her? And who would've wanted to? As she cultivates the other members of Grant's team--emergency medicine specialists Sam Davidian (a warm and sure-handed ten-year veteran) and Jacob Coyne (who remembers his patients' problems but forgets their names); residents Billy Michaelson (intense and empathetic) and Zoe Peters (angry and power-hungry); and the nurses, nursing students, and fellows who round out the staff--Cat's attitude changes from wide-eyed lollygagging to cool appraisal. But she's not so cool that she doesn't worry about why Sam, who's been showing an interest in her that seems to be sending her ex-boyfriend over the edge, is prescribing the new medication Tegucaine in record amounts, or whether the unit's second murder will be its last. The plot is nothing more than the customary series of one-on- ones seasoned with a you-are-there parade of medical emergencies and capped with the obligatory duel to the death, but D'Amato juggles the suspects with all her usual deftness in this neatly fashioned puzzle. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.