From Publishers Weekly
In this medical mystery, the remains in question are those of Kelly McShane Braden, former lover of series hero Dr. Earl Garnet (Lethal Practice; Death Rounds; The Procedure), chief of the busy emergency room at St. Paul's Hospital in Buffalo, N.Y. Kelly disappeared under mysterious circumstances 27 years ago, and now the discovery of her bones threatens Garnet's personal and professional life. Also involved are physician/coroner Mark Roper and his sheriff friend, Dan Evans, both of whom live in Hampton Junction, a small community in the Adirondacks. Mark takes Kelly's murder personally, as she was his beloved childhood babysitter and a close friend of his physician father. The chief suspect in the original disappearance is Dr. Charles "Chaz" Braden IV, Kelly's husband and son of suave, powerful Dr. Charles Braden III. Mark and Earl join forces in hunting down Kelly's killer, and in a matter of hours, patients begin to turn up dead in hospital beds, and seemingly unrelated civilians perish in violent accidents. Mark narrowly escapes being shot, and Earl is felled by a baffling illness. Veteran thriller readers will diagnose the guilty party quickly enough, though the motive is so complicated most will simply give author Clement the benefit of the doubt and accept his version of events. This is medical suspense, so there's lots of doctor talk: "But the lack of nausea and there being no focal, right-upper-quadrant tenderness means we don't even have to think gallbladder, and with normal urine, it isn't renal. Any history of hypertension, Earl?" Readers who go for this sort of chatter will find the book a compelling read, but those who aren't quite so taken with hospitals and healers might look elsewhere for their thrills.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
__PRAISE FOR PETER CLEMENT
*Mortal Remains
“Peter Clement’s Mortal Remains is furiously paced and intricately plotted. I really cared about these characters and what happens to them. There is no higher praise I can give to anyone’s writing."
—MICHAEL PALMER
“Written with impressive authority, Peter Clement’s medical thriller Mortal Remains is tautly plotted and packed with panache.”
—JOHN CASE
** _Critical Condition
_** “Clement’s twenty years as an emergency physician and family doctor result in novels of stunning suspense grounded by an insider’s view of medical science.”
—*The Toronto Star
__Mutant
** _“Steeped in the thriller traditions of John Saul, Dean Koontz, and Stephen King: pulse-quickening action, a sub-plot of good versus evil, smatterings of blood here and there and a hero’s race against certain disaster.”
— _Doctor’s Review
_ *
The Procedure
_**“More than a piece of compelling fiction, The Procedure is a cautionary tale . . . An exciting and original story, well told.”
—NELSON DEMILLE
** _Lethal Practice
_** “ ER meets Agatha Christie as Buffalo doctor Earl Garnet is suspected of murder via a cardiac needle. Heart-pounding suspense, indeed!”
— _Entertainment Weekly
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From the Hardcover edition.