A bone-chilling medical thriller

REVIEWS BY BRUCE TIERNEY

The latest Neil McMahon medical mystery, To The Bone, finds emergency room physician Carroll Monks struggling to save the life of a beautiful young woman scant hours after her breast augmentation surgery. The symptoms are baffling, and the woman's condition spirals downward rapidly. When all the conventional protocols fail, Monks risks one last-ditch radical approach. It backfires, and the woman dies. In short order, he is called on the carpet by the hospital administrator over his unconventional treatment; and accusations of incompetence are leveled at him by the surgeon who performed the breast augmentation and by the family of the dead woman. Still, Monks is perplexed by the woman's death and convinced that there is more to the situation than meets the eye. With the help of a private detective friend, he launches an investigation and is quickly drawn into a decadent and deadly game, one that could easily cost him his reputation, his career or even his life.

With each successive Carroll Monks novel, Neil McMahon delves deeper into the character of his iconoclastic protagonist. The plots are increasingly intricate, the villains more depraved. Fans of the medical mysteries of Thomas Harris or Patricia Cornwell should find a place for To the Bone on their autumn short list.


Swimming with dolphins

At the opening of Iris Johansen's latest adventure-mystery, Fatal Tide, marine researcher Melis Nemid is spending the bulk of her time in the company of dolphins, a pair of frolicsome juveniles named Pete and Susie. They are her only companions on the solitary Caribbean island Melis calls home. It is a life that suits her, as her experiences with human acquaintances have often been less than exemplary: as a child she was sold into modern-day slavery, spending her formative years in an Istanbul brothel. After a long regimen of therapy, Melis has come to terms with her past, but even so, she prefers the company of the less threatening aquatic mammals. When her adoptive father is killed in a boating explosion, Melis enlists the aid of Jed Kelby, a mysterious ex-Navy Seal engaged in the business of seeking the remains of sunken shipwrecks. Their search for clues will take them (and the dolphins) to the exotic Canary Islands, perhaps the last remnants of the fabled lost city of Marinth. Part romance novel, part Indiana Jones, with a little Dr. Doolittle thrown in for good measure, Fatal Tide is a page turner par excellence. At times it borders on the unbelievable, but that will be no impediment to Johansen's legion of eager readers.


Mystery of the month

The September Tip of the Ice Pick Award goes to Carol O'Connell for the stark and chilling Dead Famous. New York City policewoman Kathy Mallory, appearing here in her seventh outing, must bring in the Reaper, a serial killer who is systematically murdering the jurors in a high-profile homicide trial. Ripped, as they say, from the headlines, the case centers around a radio shock jock, a loudmouthed talk show host who skates just within the letter of the law, endangering the lives of innocent listeners in the process. With adversaries as diverse as the Reaper, the FBI and a beautiful raven-haired hunchback, Mallory cannot stay within the lines of police propriety and still catch her man. So—as she has done so many times before—she takes the law into her own hands and becomes a criminal's worst nightmare: a vigilante with a badge.

Mallory is tough as nails, a female equivalent of Burke, Andrew Vachss' legendary loner. She has at her command prodigious computer skills, expertise at martial arts and marksmanship, and the street savvy of a child raised alternately by prostitutes and cops. Mallory's somewhat down-at-the-heels ex-partner, Riker, plays a strong supporting role, kibitzing and lending a hand when circumstances threaten to overwhelm her. If there is any criticism to be leveled at Dead Famous, it is that there are several references to events that transpired in the previous book, Crime School. A case could be made for reading Crime School first, as it is also a certified white-knuckler. Buy both at one time, or for that matter, get the whole set!


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