Fatal Diagnosis: An Edwina Crusoe Mystery

The heated custody battle between two couples over the true parentage of 10-year-old Hallie Dietz takes an unexpected turn when, minutes after the remarkable results of a tissue match are in, the lab technician and a teenage volunteer are shot and the records disappear. So Chelsea Memorial Hospital in New Haven, Conn., pressures Edwina Crusoe, R.N., to take on the unenviable tasks of preventing scandal and of providing medical background for the police force. But when the child in contention is spirited away from the hospital before retesting can be done, the intrepid Mrs. Crusoe, with little regard for either legalities or her own safety, sets out to find the skeletons in the families' respective closets--and comes close to losing her life in the process. This story of baby-switching and twisted psyches manages not only to move briskly, holding the reader's attention, but also, thanks perhaps to onetime respiratory therapist Kittredge's ( Dead and Gone ) own scientific association, to render antigens and immunology comprehensible. Fans will look forward to the further adventures of Edwina in a projected series. (July)