A diamond!
Number three in the series may have proven to be the charm, but one wonders what happened since then. Tragic Wand is the third in a series of medical mysteries and thrillers that have been written by James Tucker about Jack Merlin and his girlfriend Tory Welch. In this third volume, Mr. Tucker gets it right on almost all counts which is also a huge improvement over the first two volumes. Finally we can read a medical thriller that has the requisite mix of ingredients to make a fun read.



In his previous two books, there was never a mystery about who the bad guys were and why they were doing what they were doing. In this book, you think there is no mystery as you get started, but you very quickly pick up on the fact that there is more going on under the surface. I thought it was great that I was not able to piece together the real storyline until the last eighty pages of the book. Also, the way some crimes were being committed were almost totally believable and the motives of the various characters were logical and made sense.



Tragic Wand really delves into the issue of what happens when a plastic surgeon goes bad. It starts with a prologue in which a plastic surgeon in Florida does an operation on a gangster and then finds out that his colleague has been murdered. The implication being that since the doctor left the office too soon, the murderer was actually looking for the surgeon.



Move time forward by six years and we meet a very successful plastic surgeon in Pittsburgh who operates on a shady character who seems to have a pathological need to maintain anonymity during his operation. Unfortunately, due to a scheduling error, Tory Welch is in the office when the criminal is there and he goes ballistic. Not only does he harm Tory, but he manages to go off full-cock and create all kinds of additional havoc. There are many twists to the story and I will not lay them all out here since that would give too much away.



There is a lot of medical jargon in these novels and that is expected both because of the nature of the stories as well as the nature of the writer - he is a doctor who is practicing in the Pittsburgh area. In addition, this book excels in giving the flavor of the various Pittsburgh locales that are descried in the book. As someone who lives in Pittsburgh, it was easy for me to visualize the various scenes as they are very authentically rendered.



The author does have a habit of naming his characters in a slightly goofy manner. The main character is Jack Merlin who is a surgeon and a magician (magician = Merlin, get it?). The plastic surgeon is Marshall Cutter; while the gun-wielding policeman is detective Deringer. Ouch. Another thing that I do not particularly like is that the assistant DA (Tory Welch) is always on the receiving end of most of the violence. Of course, Merlin and Welch continue to investigate what is going on in spite of and in ignorance of any police actions...



I do regret though, that it seems as if Mr. Tucker has given up this series. The web site given in the book is non-operative and the date of publication of this book is seven years ago, and there are no other volumes. It's a shame that now that he finally got it right, Mr. Tucker has given up the writing ghost.

The plot was gripping! The murder scenes and descriptions were so vivid and horrendous, I could barely keep reading (makes you want to cover your eyes like at a horror movie). The intensity kept building as the pages flew by. The author uses his medical knowledge well in building a believable murder mystery. Count me in as a new James Tucker fan. His entry into the genre of medical thrillers should be noted!

If you enjoy Cornwell-esque murders and Robin Cook-like stories this book is for you. I look forward to the other books by this author.

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