Mortal Judgments

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

An overabundance of detail and a formulaic plot hinder Peak's third novel (after Blood Relations), a legal/medical thriller in which a San Francisco orthopedic surgeon is accused of lethal malpractice. The female founder of a lingerie company dies suddenly while undergoing spinal surgery under the care of Dr. Arnold Jones. Jones turns to Vicki Shea, a former M.D. turned malpractice attorney, to handle the trial, but despite an overwhelming amount of technical evidence that Jones acted both competently and ethically, the surgeon faces a huge financial settlement that threatens his medical career. Using an array of medical experts to examine the forensic evidence, Shea slowly uncovers some damning details about the sex life of the drug-addicted victim, as well as about the operation of the blood machine that may have caused the sudden, massive bleed during the operation. That information leads to the murder of two pathologists who supply their talents to the case, and divorced heroine Shea herself becomes a target for assassins. Unfortunately, Peak focuses so much on the medical and legal details that the narrative never gathers much momentum in the early chapters, although Shea, shouldering her own emotional needs, remains an engaging and often charming protagonist. While the plot eventually gets going at a more sprightly pace, Peak fails to capitalize on the array of interesting possibilities offered by the purported failure of the blood machine. Though he explores some interesting moral quandaries here, the resolution is a disappointment.

Kirkus Reviews

A woman dies under the surgeon's knife, and nobody is sure why. Nevertheless, her husband rushes for a judgment. Pressure builds on the young surgeon to let his insurance company settle, but he won't. Instead, he does that high-risk thing-he stands on principle. He's thought about his performance, analyzed it hard, and now refuses to take the safe way out. So beguiled by the rarity of this act is Vicki Shea, powerhouse San Francisco medical malpractice lawyer, that she, too, digs in her heels. But inimical forces are ranged against them, and soon Vicki discovers just how serious they are. Driving along the freeway after accepting the case, she narrowly escapes death when a concrete block is hurled at her car. Then two pathologists hired by her for their expertise are brutally murdered. Vicki is frightened, of course, but she won't quit, despite the urging of friends who view principles as abstractions, life as for real. She assembles her case steadily, and though it's far from iron-clad, she believes in it. In a stirring closing speech, she insists on the distinction-easy to blur-between malpractice and death (even unexpected death) in the operating room. A woman died, a good woman, she acknowledges, but how can it follow from this that all surgeons are killers? Peak's best so far (Blood Relations), thanks to an engrossing and vivid cast, particularly the brainy, flinty, flirty, ever-honest Vicki, who in spite of her frailties (or probably because of them) is quintessentially lovable.