Misfire

Euliano’s fine sequel to 2021’s Fatal Intent finds anesthesiologist Kate Downey, who works in a Florida hospital, still emotionally vulnerable after the deaths of her husband, Greg, and her infant daughter, Emily. Greg died almost a year after an explosion put him into a persistent vegetative state, and Emily died moments after her premature birth just days after the explosion. Meanwhile, Kate fears for the health of her Aunt Irm, her closest friend, who has a Kadence, a new kind of automated internal cardioverter defibrillator, implanted for a heart condition. The device is supposed to detect abnormal rhythms and treat any it finds. But there’s a problem. After a routine hernia procedure on a patient for whom Kate’s the anesthesiologist, his Kadence malfunctions. Kate’s fears that the new tech could harm her aunt magnify when she learns of other similar misfires, including one involving the governor, and that the device’s inventor, the hospital’s head of cardiology, engaged in an unethical conflict of interest in getting the use of Kadence approved. Euliano, herself an anesthesiologist, accessibly conveys the medical details, and a romantic subplot isn’t intrusive. Readers will want to see a lot more of Kate. (Jan.)