Due to the initially slow plot and a surfeit of medical detail not for the squeamish, Ephron's fourth mystery featuring Boston-area forensic psychologist Dr. Peter Zak satisfies less than its immediate predecessor, Delusion
(2003). Zak investigates the stalking of a flirtatious physician, Emily Ryan, who works in the laboratory where doctors James Shands and Estelle Pullaski are hoping to find a breakthrough to treat Lewy body dementia, the brutal cousin of Alzheimer's disease. When Zak's girlfriend's uncle becomes a lab patient and almost dies of a bacterial infection, Zak suspects Shands and Pullaski are harvesting brains to use in their experiments. With the death of one of the lab staff, found crushed under an MRI machine, Zak is confronted with outright murder. The plot, once it builds up steam, becomes one of the author's most slick, but at the expense of character development. Still, the writing is as sharp as ever, with fewer clichés and fresher similes and metaphors than have appeared in past novels in what remains a series to watch. (Dec. 8)
FYI:
G. H.
Ephron is the pseudonym of the writing team Hallie Ephron and Dr. Don Davidoff.
