Weapon of Choice

September 3, 2012
Set in 1985, Gussin’s mildly engrossing third medical thriller featuring Dr. Laura Nelson (after 2007’s Twisted Justice) finds the thoracic surgeon facing Tampa City (Fla.) Hospital’s first-ever HIV/AIDS case. In addition to her patient, Matthew Mercer, Laura must also deal with infectious disease researcher Victor Worth, who has only recently discovered he is Matthew’s father. Angered that his former employer, Keystone Pharma, has passed up a drug that could save Matthew’s life, Victor plots to experiment on hospital patients. CDC researcher Charles Scarlett, meanwhile, draws up an even less safe prescription, this one consisting of flesh-eating bacteria, on behalf of a white supremacist group, the Order. Also included among the plethora of characters and plot twists are Laura’s woes over an illness suffered by her daughter, Natalie; a bit of romance; and the difficulties of single motherhood. There are too many organisms in the petri dish, but Gussin manages to bring it all together for a slam-bang finish.

October 1, 2012
The latest novel to feature Tampa surgeon Laura Nelson (Twisted Justice, 2007) is set in the mid-1980s. A new and virulent biological infection is killing the hospital's patients, and Laura's own daughter could be at risk. Meanwhile, in neighboring Georgia, white supremacists are plotting homicide on a massive scale. Could these two cases be related? This is a taut and fast-moving thriller set against a dramatic backdropone of Laura's patients is suffering from a new disease that targets the body's immune system, a disease that has just started to become known as AIDSand completes Laura's transition from naive young woman to someone who's seen more than enough tragedy for one lifetime. The book is a definite improvement on Twisted Justice, which suffered from an overcomplicated story and poor character development. This one is tighter, and Nelson herself is more believable. For fans of medical thrillers, a solid and satisfying read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)