Cadaver: An Edwina Crusoe Medical Mystery - Hardcover

Wealthy, attractive nurse Edwina Crusoe (Rigor Mortis, 1991, etc.), newly married to detective Martin McIntyre of New Haven's Homicide division, is now a p.i. specializing in medical cases. She's asked for help by flaky Mona Weissman, whose doctor father shot himself to death in his locked car, engine running. Mona doesn't believe it's suicide; neither does Weissman's secretary, Marcia Larsen, with whom he'd had a long-running, extramarital affair. Meanwhile, the police are preoccupied with the escape of psychotic killer Craig Fellowes from his hospital bed shackles in Chelsea Memorial Hospital, where other bizarre things are happening--the killing of Marcia Larsen in her late boss's ransacked office and the disappearance of a genius researcher who needs the bodyguard provided by his millionaire father. The kidnapping of McIntyre inspires Edwina's sometimes erratic sleuthing instincts to pull all the elements together in a tense windup. Overloaded with plot contrivances but gripping--and the best yet of this series. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Was it foul play or suicide when medical journal editor Bennett Weissman was discovered in his garage with the car running and the .22 that blew out his brains close at hand? In her third appearance, after Rigor Mortis , private eye and ex-nurse Edwina Crusoe decides to investigate and begins by talking to the dead man's family and colleagues at Chelsea Memorial Hospital. Her questions touch the raw nerves of Bennett's mercurial daughter Mona, a singularly unconvincing character; and Vinnie Perillo, an amusing dilettante scientist who runs dubious experiments on hairless mice. Two new bodies turn up, then Edwina's new husband, Martin, a homicide detective, is kidnapped by a psychotic killer. Fortunately, the grousing cop who confiscated Edwina's lock picks grudgingly pitches in to help her bring two murderers to justice. The cameo roles--the cranky cop; a steamed-up, dedicated doctor--pack more punch than major players. Kittredge delivers a sharp whiff of real hospital air, but dithers with a plot that's a pint low on credibility.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.