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Emergency Medicine resident Dr. Jake Prescott has no idea why his wife was attacked and his daughter kidnapped, but he does know that the man demanding ransom from him wants a lot more than money. Prescott can think of only one way to solve this puzzle: force a confession from the kidnapper's partner, Robert Metzger. A local hoodlum, Metzger was seriously injured by Jake's wife during the home invasion that led to little Kelly's abduction. Sara Prescott's gutsy act of resistance resulted in grave injury to her, bit it also landed Metzger in the SICU. In restraints and on a respirator, Metzger gives Jake names when the doctor bluffs a murderous attempt on the man's life. When Metzger dies shortly after Jake's visit, the police assume the young doctor's rage has turned lethal. Jake manages to avoid arrest after being warned by another resident, Tony Castaic. Dr. Castaic is Jake's best friend, but even he doesn't know that Jake is hiding out in the home of a former patient, retired P.I. Terry Luther. With Luther's help, Jake tracks down both the kidnapper, Billy Ray Chance, and the information that has put him and his family in danger. Kurt Popke is a full-time ER doctor whose first book shows promise of better things to come if only he reigns in his exuberance for medical minutiae. Readers with medical backgrounds, especially ER personnel like myself, may enjoy the author's highly detailed rendition of events in a Level One trauma ER. Ordinary mystery fans, though, will probably feel a little squeamish, and may put down the book, after reading a blow by blow description of cardiac resuscitation on a trauma victim in chapter one. Popke's writing style is a bit on the teaching side, with hospital characters often speaking in dialogue that makes them sound as if they're filling in the lines on a medical review test. He loosens up a bit when he takes his characters out of the hospital, and does show an adeptness at keeping the action going from chapter to chapter. Knowledgeable readers, though, will cringe at the premise of the plot: a cigarette company has been genetically altering tobacco plants since the mid-1950's to produce a product that's highly addictive to smokers. Since DNA and the genetic code weren't even fully explained until 1953, and genetic engineering of plants really began in the '70's, the premise as put forth by the author is a defective one. Imagination is a fine thing in a writer, but no reader likes to have the facts manipulated to serve the story. Hopefully Kopke will do better with his next effort.
Reviewed by Mary V. Welk, August 2003
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