text: The daughter of a prominent Boston doctor is dead, apparently from a botched abortion (which was illegal in the late 60's).  Dr. John Berry's friend, Art Lee, is in jail for the crime, which he says he didn't commit.  So, Dr. Berry sets out to prove his friend's innocence, and runs into cover-ups and lots of secrets.  But there are many doubts, such as was the girl really pregnant, and did Dr. Lee actually perform the surgery, and why is Dr. Berry so interested in finding the culprit?
  
  For Michael Crichton's first novel, it's not bad, but nowhere near as good as some later ones.  The plot is marginally interesting, but it was hard to keep characters straight and the dialog didn't sound very natural.  Dr. Berry (who just takes the whole work week off to investigate) talks more like a cheesy "private eye" than a doctor.  Also annoying was the use of footnotes and endnotes to explain various medical terms and concepts - nice to know but annoying to look up
  