Richard Kurtz is a surgeon, a good surgeon if he does say so himself (which he does, despite the old joke about how if you ask a surgeon to name the three best surgeons in the world, he'll have trouble thinking of the other two). He has a luxury apartment on the West Side, a good-looking girlfriend and a busy practice. Kurtz should be happy, but when former girlfriend Sharon Lee is found strangled in a hospital call room, Kurtz cannot resist getting involved...

The murder of his former girlfriend, Sharon Lee, has been solved, and surgeon Richard Kurtz has finally managed to put the past behind him, settling back into a routine of teaching medical students and residents and taking care of patients. He has a new love interest in graphic artist Lenore Brinkman and life has seemingly returned to normal when Rod Mahoney, an anatomy professor at Staunton College of Medicine, is found brutally murdered in his office. Lew Barent has seen a lot of dead bodies in his job as a homicide detective but even he is horrified by what has been done to Rod Mahoney. Richard Kurtz had been reluctantly drawn into the investigation of Sharon Lee’s death but his assistance had proven to be vital. Barent is confident that he can count on Kurtz once again, even more so when he discovers that Mahoney and Kurtz were old friends. Rod Mahoney had led a quiet life, with a happy family and a job that he loved. Mahoney had no obvious enemies but somebody had hated him enough to murder him and to tear his body into pieces. Determined to discover who killed Rod Mahoney, and why, Kurtz and Barent suddenly find themselves investigating a twisted tale of bitter regret and decades-old revenge. But powerful forces don’t want this murder solved, and Kurtz finds that while he is hunting a murderer, the murderer is hunting him.

Richard Kurtz is a surgeon with a growing practice, a luxury apartment on the East Side of Manhattan and a beautiful girlfriend. Lew Barent is a police detective. He has chronic migraine headaches, a son-in-law he can barely stand and a job that he's looking forward to leaving. Kurtz and Barent have solved two improbable murders at Easton Medical Center and neither of them are expecting a third, but when elderly philanthropist dreams that she's witnessed a murder and a young hospital administrator is found strangled in bed, Kurtz and Barent are drawn into a twisted tale of greed, conspiracy and long-simmering revenge

Surgeon Richard Kurtz has helped the police solve three murders in the past two years and he hoped that his involvement in crime fighting was over.But life seems to have other ideas.Kurtz has settled back into his work as a general surgeon, teaching students and residents and planning his wedding to graphic artist Lenore Brinkman, but things are not so placid as they seem in Staunton College of Medicine. The Chairman of Cardiac Surgery is about to retire. The Chairman of Anesthesiology is making himself so obnoxious that his department is in open revolt and the Chairman of Obstetrics and Gynecology is being stalked by a lunatic.Lew Barent and Harry Moran are murder cops. Petty harassment is not their usual crime, but as petty harassment steadily escalates into vandalism and then assault, the College of Medicine finds itself under siege, and Kurtz, Barent and Moran are once again thrown into the center of the mayhem.

Kurtz has the typical surgeon’s deep-seated mania for control and right now, too many things are happening, none of which make sense. His most recent patient, an undercover cop, has had his brain scrambled by a sniper’s bullet. Another patient is dying because an incompetent colleague made one mistake too many. A third patient got hit by a car after OD’ing on a new, unknown narcotic, and Steven Hayward and his wife, both drug dealers, were found dead in bed with their detached heads propped up on the kitchen counter. Not that any of this is Kurtz’ business. Kurtz is a police surgeon but as everybody keeps reminding him, police surgeons aren’t cops. They’re surgeons. Kurtz and police detective Lew Barent have solved three improbable murders at Easton Medical Center. These latest murders have nothing to do with Kurtz…until more patients overdose, more bodies start to appear and a Russian mobster warns him to mind his own business. How does the Russian mob fit into things? Who is doing what to whom? Kurtz can’t resist asking questions, but the wrong questions asked of the wrong people could get him killed.

Do you love books that are filled with suspense, twisted schemes and great characters caught up in a tempest of crime, corruption and lies?Do you love a hero who pulls no punches and never gives up?Richard Kurtz was looking forward to spending a few weeks in the West Virginia mountains, covering for another surgeon. It should have been a pleasant break from his busy New York practice, giving Kurtz and his wife, Lenore, a good excuse to return home to the family farm and reconnect with his father and his father’s new family.And then Lenore stumbles on the skull of a young girl at the bottom of a creek and fifteen dead bodies are discovered in a shallow grave.Kurtz never intended to become a crime fighter. Kurtz is a surgeon. Surgeons heal people. But fate has a way of interfering and Richard Kurtz has a knack for stumbling into trouble. Kurtz is a part time police surgeon, with close connections to law enforcement and the NYPD.So, it’s only natural that Kurtz cannot resist trying to untangle a conspiracy that involves organized crime, political corruption and a serial killer hiding out in the woods, who is determined to continue killing, no matter the cost.From USA Today Bestselling author Robert I. Katz.