Marilyn's Mystery Reads

There is a lot going on at River Valley Hospital in midtown Manhattan, and not all of it is good.

Lydia Chin’s older brother Elliot is head of Emergency Medicine at the hospital, and a generous donor wants to make a substantial gift to honor him for saving his daughter’s life a year earlier.  However, there are two problems concerning the donation.  The philanthropist wants his gift to be used for a new ER pavilion, with Elliot’s name featured on it, but Dr. Chin doesn’t want it.  The hospital  doesn’t need a new wing, he tells Lydia and her partner Bill Smith; instead, he wants the money to be spent on things that are actually necessary.

There is a nurses’ strike on the horizon, and Elliot would prefer that the money be spent on raises for them.  Many nurses have been working double, even triple, shifts, and they are determined to get raises corresponding to their workload.  Both the administration and the nurses’ committee are standing firm in their positions–minimum raises offered by the River Valley’s board vs. the promise of a prolonged strike by the nurses.

Dr. Chin calls his sister and her partner, asking for their help in investigating the murder of a hospital employee.  Jordy Karazim is a diener (a morgue assistant) at the hospital.  He is accused of killing Sophia Scott, a nurse, and although she was on the nurses’ bargaining committee, she was totally against the strike and sided with the management on every issue.  When Jordy finds her body in the hospital’s unofficial “nap room” in the basement, he’s arrested.

He’s quickly released due to a lack of physical evidence, but the detective in charge of the case still believes he committed the murder.  Jordy is getting no support from his father or his brother, both physicians at the hospital, who believe he is guilty.  There is intense animosity between Jordy and his family, so strong that Jordy has taken his late mother’s maiden name rather than be connected to the DeBrengs, father and son.

With the help of Lydia’s cousin Linus and his girlfriend Trella, internet searchers extraordinaire, Lydia and Bill get more information about what’s going on at the hospital–extortion, blackmail, extra-marital affairs, and more.  No wonder Lydia and Bill’s every move is thwarted by the River Valley administration; there’s a lot they would like to stay hidden.

The mystery’s title, First Do No Harm, is taken from the writings of Hippocrates.  It’s not from his famous oath but from another of his writings and requires the physician ensure their actions do not cause injury or harm to the patient.  Somehow the hospital’s administrators and management are able to disregard this part of patient care when it interferes with the bottom line.

S. J. Rozan has written another outstanding mystery in the Lydia Chin/Bill Smith series.  Both the protagonists are believable, intelligent, and determined to get to the bottom of the murder of Sophia Scott and what is going on behind the scenes at River Valley Hospital.

You can read more about the author at numerous sites on the web.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novels.