A Researched Death

New City Hospital in Cincinnati is affiliated with the South West Ohio Medical School in the same city as a major teaching and research hospital. A prominent surgeon at New City loses his research funding and his operating privileges and storms out of the hospital. Shortly thereafter, the head of research is brutally murdered and suspicion falls on the missing surgeon. The bodies of other individuals who have troubled relations with the surgeon begin to pile up. Cincinnati police are puzzled at the missing surgeon's ability to evade their search and to continue killing enemies in a close and personal manner. The primary investigator, Detective Ron 'Walker' Looney is a retired Air Force criminal investigator and long-time friend of the hospital's chief of staff, a retired Air Force brigadier general and orthopedic surgeon, Tom Bolling. Bolling's concerns for his staff are compounded by worry that the hospital might lose accreditation status from the Joint Commission and have to sever its affiliation with the medical school. Together with a former medical examiner, they piece together a credible case against the missing surgeon. But that case is later blown apart when evidence proves otherwise. As the detectives begin re-examining the motive behind the killings, another attack occurs with no obvious connection to the surgeon. The detectives wrestle with their previous ideas about a reason for the murders in light of the last attempt and finally get on the trail of the actual killer. They uncover the identity of someone likely to be the next victim. Their attempt to intervene and prevent this planned assault takes them to a baseball game at Great American Baseball Park and a race against time to prevent a murder.