Hospital

Written with all the subtlety of a TV soap, Rose's new novel (after All for the Love of Daddy ) features a large cast of characters interacting in a prestigious Manhattan hospital. Kindhearted but emotionally insecure Dr. Eliot Wolfe becomes president of Harmony Hospital, which his prominent family has run for years. His driven, committed wife, Toni Romano, leaves behind her own practice in Washington to move to New York. Resentments fester, and soon, amid clashing personal agendas and professional crises, the marriage falters. Meanwhile, other characters attempt to deal with tension-fraught lives. Eliot's secretary is determined to rid her Harlem block of drug dealers; her sister, who has fulfilled her dream of becoming a doctor, is now daunted by the lives of her patients, casualties of the inner city; a chief nurse is striving to stay away from alcohol; an unscrupulous TV reporter, to whom higher ratings are more important than truth, is determined to uncover scandal behind the scenes, and a paramedic seeking the secret of his parentage makes a startling discovery. Rose mixes medical details, hospital gossip, power struggles and ethical dilemmas in a plot that never aims higher than commercial durability, but readers who like their exposure to medical issues tinged with melodrama will be entertained. (June)