MURDER AND MEDICINE: S.J. ROZAN'S FIRST DO NO HARM

In First Do No Harm, the latest book to feature the private eye team of Lydia Chin and Bill Smith, author S.J. Rozan finds a unique setting. Partially due to a favor for Lydia's doctor brother, Elliot, they take the case of Jordy Karazim, a morgue assistant (or diener), who woke up in a River Valley Hospital area the staff uses to either nap or hook up, next to the dead body of Nurse Sophia Scott. He claims innocence, even though his father, and brother both prominent doctors, think he should take a plea.

Rozan uses the hospital as a fascinating microcosm to solve a mystery. Not only is Jordy's freedom at stake, but a large donation to River Valley, connected to Elliot, is in the final stages of going through and the hospital is in contract negotiations with the nurses, Lydia and Bill have to delve into the politics, social stratas, and opposing forces in the medical establishment.

For those unfamiliar with the series, each book goes back and forth with Lydia and Bill as the leads and narrators and probably due to the family connection, Lydia gets the spotlight. While I love the classic world weary detective, this first generation Chinese-American breathes a subtle fresh air into the genre with her youthful, go-for-broke voice, that acts as a perfect counterpoint to her her more calm, low key partner. The book is bracketed by her discovery of skydiving.

In First Do No Harm, S.J. Rozan delivers everything we love in a solid detective novel with a setting that gives us a look a community of modern medicine. It humanizes those who work in it and we get a better insight that as the book looks at it from ground level and some floors above, while always keeps us engaged in the mystery. For modern PI fans, it's what the doctor ordered.