Prognosis: Guarded

In this 2-Part book, Part One is a non-fiction account about the author's first novel -- PROGNOSIS: GUARDED -- written in 1977, to much acclaim. The highly respected novel-writing instructor at the University of Oklahoma said this about the first draft: 'I've never read a first novel half this good.' From there, the author had his choice of literary agents, and then talk of movie potential plus dropping out of medical training (he was a 29 y/o surgery resident at the time) to write full time. But while waiting for a response from Random House, an identical plot became a published novel -- COMA, by Robin Cook -- which introduced a new genre, the medical thriller. The author assumed he might still be able to capitalize on the success of COMA, but all doors closed, and after 17 years, the author finally gave up and moved on to coming-of-age fiction. Importantly, the author describes how the inability to have his first novel published was responsible for switching genres to 'coming of age' rather than continue in what eventually would be a market glut of medical thrillers. PART TWO is the novel itself -- PROGNOSIS: GUARDED where a surgeon and a pathologist conspire to commit medically untraceable murders of the rich and famous of Hollywood. The protagonists are old lovers from years past. They meet coincidentally where it is learned that the young woman, Laura, sits on the Board of Medical Quality Assurance in California. Her friend, Nick, is a disgraced newspaper journalist who's looking for the 'big story' that will re-start his career. Laura is visiting in L.A. to investigate an anonymous complaint about a rising mortality rate at a small hospital in the San Fernando Valley. While Laura and Nick attempt to renew their relationship, more and more evidence is mounting that something terrible is happening at the small hospital, in that the surgical deaths form a pattern that is not easily proven. Nick decides to go undercover as a patient, and by the time total chaos ensues, Laura finds herself behind bars in the psychiatric wing of the hospital. It is only through Nick's clever scheme that they survive the ordeal.