The Deception

March 31, 1997
Although the intense legal infighting that pumped up Reed's bestsellers The Verdict and The Choice is in place here, this novel about a malpractice suit loses energy in other ways. Donna DiTullio is a promising young tennis star who leaps from the sixth-floor atrium of a Boston hospital after making a seemingly miraculous recovery from manic depression. She survives, but in a near-comatose state, and Reed's customary hero, attorney Dan Sheridan, takes up her legal cause in a suit against the hospital, which is owned by the Archdiocese of Boston. Soon, Sheridan comes to question both the effectiveness of the experimental drug Donna was taking and the compassion of her psychiatrist, Robert Sexton. The action picks up considerably as Sheridan survives an attempt on his life while engaged in some legal legwork, and as he finds himself in a race against time and his would-be assassin to save both the case and Donna's life. As before, Reed's great strength is his ability to convey the ordinary, day-to-day corruption that throws up an almost insurmountable mountain of obstacles for his hero to overcome. He focuses so much attention on Sheridan's problems and issues, however, that he generates only token sympathy for Donna; that flaw, plus a rather predictable outcome, flatten the novel's ending. But Reed, as always, does entertain, including enough wryly ironic passages on the practice of medicine and the law to give the suspense a welcome moral kick.

January 1, 1997
From the author who gave us best sellers like The Verdict: the near-suicide of a once-promising young tennis star leads to legal complications for the hospital where she was being treated for manic depression.

September 1, 1997
YA-Just about everyone lies to everyone else throughout this medical-legal novel. Young tennis star Donna DiTullio is hospitalized after a suicide attempt and treated as a manic-depressive by the renowned Dr. Sexton. After a startling recovery due to treatment with an experimental medication, Donna is scheduled to leave St. Anne's psychiatric center when she falls from a fifth-floor balcony. Severely brain injured, she has little chance for recovery. Attorney Dan Sheridan is brought in by the DiTullio family to sue the doctor, the hospital, and its owner, the Archdiocese of Boston. Thus begins the unraveling of the true events that occurred on the balcony. Once Sheridan uncovers those deceptions, he must decide whether to expose the doctor's guilt or let the case stand as the hospital's negligence because of a balcony that was not properly secured. His decisions alter his life and leave readers to decide for themselves about the means he chooses to reach the end. An interesting story and a very fast read, the book will appeal to many YAs and leave them with a few questions worth asking.-Carol DeAngelo, formerly at Fairfax County Public Library, VA

April 15, 1997
Set against the backdrop of Boston's conservative Catholic hospitals, Reed's legal thriller looks at life inside a psych ward. Dr. Robert Sexton, the head of psychiatry at St. Anne's, has been working with a new drug that is more effective than Prozac at bringing patients out of the abyss of depression. His most prized patient is Donna DiTullio, a young, suicidal tennis champion. In spite of remarkable progress, Donna once again attempts suicide (and once again fails, despite having been left unattended at the top of an open atrium). Her parents hire Dan Sheridan to sue the venerable hospital. It's hard enough suing an institution protected by the Catholic church, but when Dan starts digging into the renowned Dr. Sexton's past, the case become even more complex. Reed, author of "The Verdict" (1980), delivers a thoroughly researched, intriguing tale about both the legal and psychiatric professions. ((Reviewed April 15, 1997))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1997, American Library Association.)