Blood Run

A suspense-packed, hard-edged tale of the real world in one of New York's big hospitals, this first novel by a medical technician has good credentials as an authentic medical thriller. Evelyn Sutcliffe, M.D., resident in emergency medicine, is on duty when her colleague, Dr. Shelley Reinish, is brought in to the emergency room by her frantic husband; she is comatose from an overdose of medication, apparently a suicide attempt. Attempts to save her life fail and Evelyn grieves for this friend who had a brillant future in surgery. Drawn into the case is Evelyn's lover and Dr. Reinish's psychiatrist, Phil Carchiollo. Did he have clues that Shelley was contemplating suicide? Or was her death murder? Stories of bizarre behavior in the operating room lead a shaken Evelyn to other discoveries about the dead surgeon. Tales of her eccentric conduct with staff doctors and talk of an expose she was writing that contained provocative interviews with her peers are mysterious developments. When Evelyn's own investigation turns up some horrifying surprises it becomes clear that Shelley's life was not as placid as everyone believed. Riveting prose tends to redeem occasional wordy passages of medicalese (anesthesia to the uninitiated) and the setting is authentic and the characters believable. Though now and again melodramatic, the story unfolds at a forceful clip. (September)