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All I know about Lynn Fulton I learned from her book and her Web site ( www.home.earthlink.net/~lynnfulton ). She is married, has a son, two crazy cats, and a Ph.D. in English, and she works for a medical malpractice insurer. And she has written a great first first mystery novel that deserves a prize, a major publisher, and a top-notch agent, none of which, apparently, she has -- yet. Like the author, Petra Jameson has a Ph.D. in English and works for a medical malpractice insurance company. She is single, lives in San Francisco, and has a position as a claims investigator working with lawyers to defend insured doctors in malpractice suits. The story is concerned with two of her many current cases. Dr. Amato is being sued by a former patient who alleges she started hearing voices and lost her job six months after he had sex with her. When Petra asked the doctor if the sexual misconduct charge has any validity, to her surprise Dr. Amato says yes. Dr. Dolan is being sued by the wife of a man drowned in a swimming pool because -- so the wife says -- Dolan failed to give his heart condition the proper treatment. The widow happens also to be the District Attorney. Indications that the dead man was a cocaine sniffer may be useful to the defense, but turning the indications into solid evidence proves to be troublesome. Trace, the man Petra used to live with on the East Coast, telephones to ask if he can stay with her for a week while he is interviewing for an academic job. She agrees, but reflects that she'll have to have him sleep on a sofa because she considers their past romantic relationship finished. As a complication, she meets a private investigator, Pete, who works for the lawyer Petra's company has retained to defend the Dolan case. Sexually impressed with Pete, Petra goes on a date with him and they end up in bed in a hotel room. Meanwhile, although Trace is not complaining, Petra feels sorry for making him sleep on the sofa and she invites him to share the bed in her apartment. Thus, in addition to juggling two major cases, Petra finds herself unintentionally juggling two boyfriends. The suspense in the story grows. While Petra is surreptitiously searching the office of the man who drowned, the dead man's District Attorney widow walks in on her. A Sylvia Plath-like poet, keeps giving Petra cryptic warnings, and later is killed. A cleaning woman who may have helpful evidence also has a husband who comes after Petra and Pete with a shotgun. To make things worse, Petra begins to suspect that she can't trust even Pete. The doctor who admitted to having sexual relations with a patient (who turns out to be the poet, Cathy) seemingly commits suicide, although Petra finds indications that he was murdered. And then Petra is drugged and almost dies in an accident and has to be hospitalized. Thus we have a well-plotted, suspenseful mystery involving a topic of much current interest, the medical malpractice insurance industry. As a side benefit, we learn more about the inner workings of this business, although nothing is mentioned about the real-life problem of such insurance companies now having to require exorbitantly high fees. The writing is excellent, far above what we usually see. The characterizations are well done. The pace is well sustained, picking up tempo as the story races to a climax. Truthfully, I have to mention that there was one place in the story where I thought the concentration on Petra's love life was in danger of bogging down the main thrust, but that did not last too long. No flaw in the novel can detract from the fact that this is a most well-written, suspenseful, original, highly satisfying, entertaining story, and I look forward to seeing Lynn Fulton grow with the experience of writing more novels (she already has another featuring Petra, titled GORKED). I think Lynn Fulton has the talent to become one of the stars of the mystery-writing world. Note: The E-book version is available from the publisher.
Reviewed by Eugene Aubrey Stratton, May 2003
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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