A top-notch criminal lawyer, a savvy secretary or two, a client who is a long-time close friend. A surfing buddy who’s a dirt-digging private investigator. A female prosecutor who’s tough, professional, hard-driving attitude is a cover for a smart lawyer who really can see both sides of a case. A suave, retired medical examiner. Two doctors who are not always in top form. These are the believable, sometimes duplicitous, characters who populate David Myles Robinson’s Tropical Doubts (Terra Nova Books, © 2018) creating darkness in paradise.

Pancho McMartin, a criminal defense lawyer, takes on a medical malpractice case when Giselle, the wife of Manny Delacruz, McMartin’s close friend, becomes comatose after surgery. A short time later, Richard Takamine, the lead doctor in the case, dies of an apparent heart attack. Or is it? Takamine had been using pesticide in his backyard right before he dies. When Padma Dasari, the former medical examiner, and another of McMartin’s friends, hears of the symptoms Takamine exhibited right before his death, she wonders if its poisoning.

Tropical Doubts – Darkness in Paradise

Who stood to benefit from the doctor’s death? Was it Delacruz, who threatened the doctor in front of witnesses? Or was it Mossman, another doctor on the case who might be addicted to alcohol and drugs? A surgery nurse overheard Mossman and Takamine having words together right before the botched surgery. Manny Delacruz’s fingerprints are found on a can of poison at the scene. But did he know enough about Takamine’s personal life to plan and execute the crime? Mossman is very chummy with the victim. Was he trying to cover up his failures during Giselle Delacruz’s surgery? Who is telling the whole truth?

Can McMartin win the murder charge against Delacruz and win him a monetary award in the malpractice case as well? What happens when the full truth comes out only after both cases are settled?

Robinson’s book reminds me of an updated, but unique, variation of the Perry Mason TV series, which ran from the late ’50s through the mid ’60s. Both offer fast, even pacing, solid stories and believable characters.

I received a free copy of Tropical Doubts from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.