The Silent Sleep of the Dying

“McCarthy includes enough fascinating and grisly details from the cutting room to make his forensic forays worth putting on the latex gloves for. Once again, fans of Patricia Cornwell, Kathy Reichs and CSI should be well pleased.” – Publishers Weekly

Mark Hartmann, a consultant pathologist, has problems. Married to a barrister and the son-in-law of a judge, he should be enjoying a comfortable life, but his secret vice is gambling. Seriously mounting debts are starting to threaten his marriage.

When he is asked to perform an autopsy on Millicent Sweet, a laboratory assistant, it seems a case much like any other. True, Sweet was only 22 when she died of cancer, but then even the young are not immune to that disease. His initial findings, however, are shocking. Before he can discuss this with his colleagues he is called away to a conference in Scotland, where, drunk and depressed, he ends up sleeping with one of the sales reps. Blackmailed by a pharmaceutical company that threatens to send a video of his indiscretion to his wife, he falsifies his report on Millicent Sweet’s death. But they are not the only people interested in Sweet…

Her father, convinced his daughter’s death is the result of a laboratory accident, has contacted lawyer Helena Flemming. When Helena’s partner, John Eisenmenger, a former forensic pathologist, looks into the case, he soon uncovers the findings of Hartmann’s original autopsy and subsequent deception. Gradually Eisenmenger and Flemming begin to unearth the reasons for the pharmaceutical company’s ruthless determination to disguise the truth about Sweet's death. They uncover a conspiracy that involves a new and potentially devastating weapon; it is a conspiracy that ruthless men will do anything to keep hidden...

Will the dynamic duo be able to solve the medical crime in time?

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