av Greg Bachman
385,-
How do Jacksonville homicide detectives determine the killer of the city's most prominent cardiothoracic surgeon when it turns out, surprisingly, nearly everyone associated with the doctor is a sociopath? It's 1995, and superficially, Dr. Mason Cooper would appear to have it all--a beautiful wife, a successful career, and a sterling community reputation. So when his body is discovered under the dock of his estate home along the St. Johns River, it seems there would be few suspects. Not so. Is it his stately and sophisticated wife, Lydia, who has conspired to kill Mason? Or is it his mistress and coworker, Kendra Taylor, bent on revenge? Or is it Presbyterian Hospital's newly hired cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Lance Barton, whose reputation Cooper meant to destroy? Or is it Presbyterian's CEO, Brad Spence, who is determined to wrest control of Cooper's practice and consolidate his power at the hospital? Or is it Dr. Robert Edwards, the anesthesiologist who has been the object of Cooper's relentless bullying since arriving in Jacksonville the year before? Finally, it's about Dr. Jacob Fleckert, Jacksonville's renowned forensic pathologist, who had discerned the killer's identity, but he has his own reasons for not disclosing what he knows to his detective friend. Secrets abound as nearly everyone has a hidden past, and nearly everyone has at least one motive--money, sex, or revenge--for wanting Cooper dead. Interwoven into the story are true historical notes and personages of Jacksonville and that area of northeastern Florida in 1995, an area that is really more Deep South than typical Florida. It is a story that has enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing the who how and why until the very end, and it is certain to have the reader going back to find the missed clues.