Locum Tenens

Locum Tenens is a fictional suspense based on contemporary problems with American Medicine. Dr. Ian MacIntyre takes an assignment with an HMO and falls into a  trail of secrets, shady alliances and espionage. Locum Tenens is a contemporary medical suspense, a criticism of modern American medicine, and a story of emotional turmoil for Ian. 

Most of the book is based on my real experiences in working in various settings as an employed M.D. I wrote it before Obamacare was ever heard of, it just took me forever to get around to publishing it.


 Read Locum Tenens on KindleLocum Tenens is a fictional suspense of very real contemporary problems with American Medicine. Dr. Ian MacIntyre is a locum tenens physician who takes an assignment with River City Health System (RCHS), an HMO. Several things happen in chapter one that set up a never ending trail of secrets, shady alliances and espionage. Ian learns that there is more to his young daughter’s tragic recent death than he realized, and the answers might lie in RCHS’s acquired records. Ian accidentally plants malware called “Loki7”in the HMO mainframe. A disgruntled nurse, Marie, gives Ian a “Box of Secrets” that might help lead him to various truths.

Ian stumbles quickly into HMO practices that are not only unethical but illegal. This makes him a target for the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Johnson. Fortunately, the bumbling and inept CEO, Stan Hohlman, finds Ian charming which indirectly protects Ian from losing his position. This allows him time and opportunity to discover the secret HMO death panels.

Ian also deals emotionally with the tragic death of his daughter, which occurred under the watchful eye of Johnson a few years earlier. This emotional hook is what keeps Ian working there, looking for answers, even when staying there becomes too difficult and too dangerous. He has blamed himself for his daughter’s death for years, but the new insights he gains at this assignment offer him, for the first time, the chance to stop punishing himself for her demise. 

The efforts to line up adequate information is just as much a cyber-battle of wits, as it is raw detective work. Ian’s best friend and roommate, Tucker, is a computer engineer. Tucker tries to undo Ian’s accidental Malware planting, and inadvertently discovers an electronic trail to the death panels.Tucker teaches Ian just enough to result in Ian accidentally breaking computer laws, and they both have to work together to cover Ian’s tracks, while simultaneously working with the FBI to gather enough information to convict the RCHS brass. It takes more than just cyber attacks for Ian to achieve his goals. He also has to be politically savvy and an amateur cat burglar, and manages to get himself beat up a few times. As Ian’s investigation becomes more involved, he attracts ever more people who contribute to it. His nurse and new love interest, Mexican-American Theresa, his son, Roady, and his Chaldean neighbor, a retired Vietnam Veteran and member of Rolling Thunder all get involved. 

On the other side of morality, we have Hohlman, Johnson and the chief of security, Spivey. They continue to run their death panels even while they suspect that Ian is poking around at the truth. While these three think they have mastery over all that is clandestine in the organization, they have no idea that Spivey’s Argentine bastard son, Reynaldo, has just as much to gain by exposing their heinous deeds. 

Locum Tenens is a contemporary medical suspense, computer espionage, and a story of emotional turmoil for Ian. Many other characters weave in and out of the story, with questionable motives and equally questionable allegiances.  In the end, Ian is able to prove his case to the authorities, but not without personal sacrifice along the way. 


1 comment:

  1. I book this book. It was awesome. I read mostly scifi fantasy but this book blew me away. I would recommend it to anyone.

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