He Used His Scalpel To Kill - Not To Heal
Indeed, a few doctors do get murdered with a scalpel, but it could be that someone is trying to frame him! I bought this for the title and the cover, but was pleasantly surprised to find a deep and serious novel with an old time film noir flair.
Nicholas Martin is a newlywed and newer doctor at the Adams Maternity Hospital, where the other doctors are posturing for promotions. Well respected and busy, he is the one chosen to be taken under the wing of Dr. Adams himself, soon learning what really happens to babies born to unwed mothers in the off limits area of the hospital - just the beginning of this mystery. One night while walking to Times Square to buy a paper, he disappears, making his wife Linda frantic. Most of the story concerns her search for him in the dark and snowy streets of New York. Linda even contacts their friend Myra (an ex-lover of Nick's who still carries a torch).
Together they work with the police to unravel a web of malpractice, human trafficking, secret marriages and double indemnity - with a few scapel-in-the-throat murders along the way. In fact, the murders are very much like one years ago in Denver involving a doctor who vanished. Could this be tied up with Nick's disappearance?
The girls withhold information from the police and go off to investigate on their own, way out to an abandoned cabin of Nick's out in Long Island where they imagine he is hiding. The only thing they discover is - a stark stiff bloodless-white severed human finger in the fridge! How it came to be there - and who it belongs to - is wrapped up in this dark and involved story.
Very atmospheric, with a great mood. It's short at 128 pages but packed with story - perfect for a film noir script. I read a lot of these vintage novels but was genuinely surprised several times as plot bombshells were dropped! They twisted the story and made me perk up to the writing.
I don't know much about Henry Kane, but it was a solid mystery and I would definitely keep my eye out for more.
1956 / Paperback / 128 pages
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