Wendell Black, MD-Gerald Imber, M.D

Wendell Black, MD Gerald Imber, M.D. Harper/Bourbon Street, Feb 11 2014, $14.99 ISBN 9780062246851 NYPD police surgeon Dr. Wendell Black flies home from Heathrow when the purser asks him if he is a physician and if yes show identification. After an annoyed Wendell complies, the purser escorts him to middle aged Marjorie who explains the young woman next to her began sobbing and babbling while not looking very well. As he tries to ascertain the cause, the woman suffers a seizure and dies. Later ME Chief Dr. Benson informs Wendell that his airplane she-victim is Azuk Capinpin, a genetic anatomic-he who was a mule carrying heroin inside his body when the breast implant erupted killing him with an overdose. Farzan Byarshan, a friend of Black's girlfriend Dr. Alice Sheppard, provides Wendell with information about the dead person on the plane, but soon is murdered too. Alice vanishes while a frantic Black, working with the Feds, investigates what begins to look more like a terrorist plot rather than illegal drug smuggling. The first Wendell Black, MD mystery is a thrilling whodunit that hooks the audience from the opening 747 scene and the fast-paced storyline never let’s go of its grip until the final confrontation. The plot loses some believability when it veers from a police procedural into a terrorist thriller, but retains the exciting action-packed tension as readers will appreciate Dr. Gerald Imber’s entertaining tale. Harriet Klausner