Doing Harm

When Steve Mitchell, chief resident at Boston’s acclaimed University Hospital, is introduced by narrator Petkoff, he’s a man whose speech rings with confidence when discussing his happy marriage and bright future. There’s elation in his voice as he describes his joy at exercising his surgical skill. But when one of his patients dies mysteriously, Petkoff begins to ramp up the tension. More deaths follow and Steve takes the blame, but he soon begins to realize that Gigi, the brilliant, beautiful, and promising med student with whom he had a one-night stand, is a homicidal lunatic. As protagonists go, Steve is a not particularly likeable. But Petkoff skillfully handles Steve, taking the doctor through major mood swings—from smug self-satisfaction and arrogance to puzzlement, concern, surprise, and, finally, despair. Enacting the murderous med student, Petkoff tones down the insanity in favor of an oddly playful and eager attitude that is positively chilling. A St. Martin’s hardcover. (Feb.)