Sleight of Hand

by Robin Hathaway
Thomas Dunne Books,
2008

Third in the Jo Banks mystery series. Jo Banks is a motel doctor who consistently runs headlong into danger. Shortly after a dead body is discovered on the side of a road in South Jersey, Jo finds herself performing hand surgery in a farmhouse kitchen. Why does the patient, Max, not want to go to the hospital? Is the printing press that caught his hand used for sinister purposes? Where is Max's wife and what does his Down syndrome daughter know and understand?

Initially held at gunpoint, Jo continues to see Max as a patient and to keep his existence a secret. She becomes compelled to know the truth about who he is, and how/if he ties in with the execution- style murder that opened the story.

Hathaway keeps the reader spellbound through many twists and turns in the plot. Jo is an engaging heroine, and the supporting characters are well drawn. I can't wait to read the next in the series, or in Hathaway's other series, the Dr. Fenimore mysteries. Check out www.robinhathaway.com for information about forthcoming titles.