6. The Society by Michael Palmer

I think I am done with medical mysteries.  They all seem to follow the same story line:  bad doctors get rich and powerful and kill to protect or increase their power.  Rogue doctor stumbles on secrets and is framed to keep anyone from believing him/her.  There is always a love interest which develops incredibly fast possibly because of the intensity of the dangerous situation the couple find themselves in. 

In The Society, the bad guys are not all doctors, just the rich heads of HMO's who are denying care to middle America.  Dr Will Grant is a member of the Hippocratic Society which is fighting the callousness of the HMO's.  Of course, he finds himself drugged and at risk of losing his medical license and facing possible drug charges and a malpractice suit; but he finds love in spite of it all.  And the whole HMO system is brought to its knees because of the greed of the ones in this book. 

Palmer does raise some pretty scary questions about the state of medical care in the U.S.  I know there is no easy solution, but it is a huge mess.  He seems firmly against HMO's but doesn't give any ideas on how to make medical more affordable or how to tackle the whole issue of insurance, etc.  Not that I want to read about any of that in a murder mystery, but still . . .
Rating:  3