Do No Harm

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Division chief of emergency services at UCLA hospital, David Spier is just as horrified as his colleagues when a madman wielding a beaker of drain cleaner attacks an ER nurse who happens to be the sister of an LAPD cop. But when he uncovers the abuse the assailant suffered as a child in a psychological experiment Spier's own mother signed off on decades ago, David puts his career in jeopardy to keep Clyde Slade safe from a policeman bent on vengeance, even after Slade attacks the woman David loves and threatens his life. Gregg Andrew Hurwitz packs the pages with enough medical details and procedures to keep ER fans satisfied until summer reruns are over with this foray into Jonathan Kellerman territory. Spier's no Alex Delaware, at least not yet, but while Hurwitz has a way to go before he approaches Delaware's creator in plotting and pacing, he's on the right track. --Jane Adams


From Publishers Weekly
After two page-turners distinguished mainly by their lurid action and intrigue (The Tower; Minutes to Burn), Hurwitz shows a more serious side in this adeptly researched, well-constructed tale about science gone awry. One thing that hasn't changed, however, is the authors knack for creating distinctive villains. Here, its a psychologically damaged young man who is terrorizing the staff of a Los Angeles hospital by throwing flesh-burning alkali in the faces of nurses and doctors. After the second attack, police finally figure out the assailant is Clyde Slade, a disgruntled former hospital worker who was let go months earlier for trying to steal drugs. Emergency room physician David Spier believes that Slade may be motivated by something deeper. He launches an investigation of his own, eventually determining that Slade was an unwitting participant in a hushed-up medical study decades earlier that ended in disaster. The study, designed to foster fear in young boys, wound up traumatizing most of them for life. Slade's current behavior, Spier reasons, represents not only a way to exact revenge against the hospital but fulfills a psychological need to generate fear and torment in others. As the cops close in, Spier finds himself advocating for Slade even as he hunts him down. In his most ambitious book to date, Hurwitz delves convincingly into the world of medicine, psychology and investigative techniques. Some characters, a gleeful embalmer, a Nazi construction worker, are a bit over-the-top, and several scenes serve as little more than showcases for Hurwitz's research. But the action comes fast and steady, and by the end, Hurwitz has almost made the case that an alkali-throwing loonie deserves our sympathy.Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
In this new thriller by Hurwitz (Minutes To Burn), a nurse is attacked by a man throwing an alkali substance over her head and face just outside the UCLA Medical Center emergency room. The hospital is thrown into an uproar when a female doctor is similarly brutalized, and the full focus of the Los Angeles Police Department is centered on the medical facility and its staff. Dr. David Spier finds himself in a dilemma when the perpetrator is caught and dragged into the ER. Not only is he burned by the alkali he had in his possession but he has been beaten by the police. The doctor fears that he will never live to see a trial date. The media pick up on the turmoil inside the ER as most of the staff refuse to help Spier treat the man. When the suspect escapes, Spier becomes Dr. Death to all concerned. As his life is turned upside down, the doctor delves into the motivation behind violent crime and finds answers that he does not want. Hurwitz is a brilliant storyteller, and, despite a few scenes that stretch the reader's credulity, he has written a fast-paced plot with nicely defined characters. For all fiction collections. Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights-University Heights P.L., OHCopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Hurwitz dedicates this novel to his physician-father, "who taught me that ethics are never timid, rarely convenient, and always vital." Set in the UCLA Medical Center and the surrounding city, it embodies all those lessons, especially in the figures of Clyde, a victim of so-called psychological experimentation, and emergency department chief physician David Spiers. Revenge against the medical establishment drives Clyde to blind and nearly kill a nurse and splash two female doctors with lye. Spiers seeks Clyde's motivation, but the police (the nurse's brother among them), the ER staff, and the hospital administration want countervengeance. Spiers, whose rigid outlook on life relaxes in the aftermath of his wife's death in his arms in the ER and as he discovers that his mother, once hospital chief-of-staff, wasn't the idol he had thought her, offers himself as bait to capture Clyde and nearly gets killed. Spiers' growing understanding of applying medical ethics to daily practice is only one enticing thread in a smoothly written, gripping fabric of believable incidents, ethical questions, and changing relationships. William Beatty
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


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Compelling...Gregg Hurwitz is the heir apparent to Robin Cook. Read all 8 "From The Critics" >


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