First published 2009
Dr. Thea Sperelakis has found peace working with Doctors Without Borders in Africa, far from the politics that drove her from American hospitals. Her Asperger's diagnosis gives her brilliant recall but makes navigating hidden agendas nearly impossible. When a hit-and-run driver puts her father Petros in a coma at Boston's Beaumont Clinic, Thea must return home. Petros founded the renowned Sperelakis Center for Diagnostic Medicine, and no one expects him to survive. Two of her physician siblings want to withdraw treatment, but Thea fights alongside her eccentric brother Dimitri to keep their father alive. The accident looks increasingly deliberate as Thea investigates. Someone wanted Petros dead, but he remains the only witness. When Petros begins blinking a coded message to Thea, she realizes she must decode his warning while dodging a conspiracy that reaches deep into the medical establishment. Palmer crafts a medical thriller where one woman's determination to save her father exposes a corrupt practice that threatens every patient who trusts doctors with their lives.
Genres: medical, suspense, mystery, thriller
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: conspiracy, determined-protagonist, family-drama
Setting: Boston, Beaumont Clinic, Sperelakis Center for Diagnostic Medicine
Period: contemporary
376 pages · Hardcover · St. Martin's Press
Content warnings: medical-trauma