Could I Have This Dance?

February 11, 2002
Dr. Claire McCall is on a mission to discover the truth behind the Stoney Creek curse in Kraus's sixth book, a well-written medical thriller with romantic and inspirational overtones. Claire puts the backwards town of Stoney Creek, Va., and her "cursed" alcoholic father, Wally, behind her as she begins a grueling medical internship at Lafayette University Hospital near Boston. Yet as her father exhibits classic signs of Huntington's disease (or "the dance" in medical slang, from which the title is gleaned), Claire wonders whether the legendary curse might be due to genetics, rather than superstition or alcoholism. Fearing for her future, she turns up information that leads to puzzlement over her and her twin brother Clay's paternity. As her world crashes around her, Claire becomes confused about her faith and ponders how a loving God could orchestrate her disastrous circumstances. Claire is fallible and multidimensional, and the narrative palatably combines suspense, medical instruction, romance, humor and faith. However, like many recent CBA novels, this one is too long, and a little judicious editing might have smoothed the pacing in spots. Reader credibility will also be stretched when Claire shares a great deal of personal information with hunky intern Brett Daniels, or a little too conveniently keeps stumbling over her undergraduate genetics project, which holds clues to her present dilemma. However, Kraus's experience as a general surgeon lends authenticity to his medical descriptions, and the curveball conclusion makes the long read worthwhile.

June 1, 2002
Kraus (Lethal Mercy) draws on his extensive medical knowledge in his sixth novel. As Dr. Claire McCall enters the toughest residency program for surgeons in the country, her world begins to fall apart. Attracted to another resident just as her feelings for her fianc have turned ambivalent because she believes he pressured her into intimacy before marriage, Claire has also lost her closeness with God. To top things off, a patient admitted to the emergency room exhibits the same symptoms that Claire's father has had for years. The people in her hometown of Stoney Creek, VA, called it "The Curse" and attributed it to alcoholism. But this patient is diagnosed with Huntington's disease. As Claire tries to determine whether her father has Huntington's and whether she, in turn, has it, someone else has other reasons to shut Claire up permanently. A solid, intense thriller heavy on medical terminology, this is for fans of William Cutrer and Sandra Glahn's Deadly Cure.

Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 15, 2002
\deflang1033\pard\plain\f3\fs24 Harry Kraus' medical thrillers are always compelling, but each has been marred with creaky plot devices and a rather shrill political agenda. In \plain\f3\fs24" Could I Have This Dance? \plain\f3\fs24 he eschews politics for the straightforward story of Claire McCall, a southern girl from a poor family who has always wanted to be a surgeon. Kraus, himself a surgeon, takes the reader through Claire's rigorous training, investing his highly detailed operating scenes with Claire's heart and soul and generating suspense with Claire's worries that a gene for Huntington's disease lurks in her family history. This is Kraus' best work by far. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)