Allergy Shots: Masterful Intergration of Medical and Police Intrigue

Litman's ( The Treblinka Virus ) fast-paced, if cartoonish, medical thriller centers on a plot to turn a remedy for hay fever and asthma into an instrument of aging and chronic disease--all to profit a sinister outfit called EconoMed. When an autopsy report fails to illuminate the cause of young Dr. Natalie Lepert's death--her partially decomposed corpse had been found in her apartment--Natalie's mother hires an engaging retired black neurosurgeon named Isaac (Ike) Darnell to solve the mystery. Ike musters his ghetto jive as necessary: ``Now you lissen up, chile. You call dat honkey back and ast him when he wants ta talk to me . . . ,'' he tells a receptionist when Natalie's lover and boss at EconoMed tries to give him a brush-off. Aided by Judy Frymoyer, a scientist he meets and romances while on the case, Ike eventually tracks down not only the rogue doctor who killed Natalie by injecting potassium chloride into her tampon, but the villain who gave the hit order, and who says things like, `` . . . I want his body put through a meat grinder and fed to dogs.'' (Jan.)