Charles Atkins The Cadaver’s Ball

The Cadaver's Ball

Charles Atkins

St. Martin's, Oct 2005, $24.95, 352 pp.

ISBN: 0312342047

In 1991, Ed Tyson proposes to Beth, who apologetically says no. Instead she marries another medical student Peter Grainger. Ed vows that one day Beth will be his at any cost as he thinks of his father the "Judge" saying the " end justifies the mean".

In 2004, Peter, now a psychiatrist, struggles with the accident that killed Beth and their unborn child. He currently works as the medical director for the University Hospital Mental Health Clinic, a job he got because of his pal Ed, Dean at the school. As a favor to Ed, he currently is seeing a twenty-two years old coed Ann Walsh who looks just like Beth. Ann apparently cut her wrists following a discussion with her drunken father renowned writer Carter Walsh. Soon other incidents each more dangerous than the previous occur with Peter wondering if Ed is setting him up for some reason or he is just going insane. Police Detective Nicole Sullivan, whose daughter remains traumatized from being molested by an uncle, looks into the strange happenings at the University Hospital Medical School.

THE CADAVER'S BALL is a fabulous psychological thriller starring a person at his most vulnerable as he still grieves deeply his loss; even his son cannot help Peter recover. Interestingly the manipulations of the twisted Ed are what snap a teetering Peter back to life. Though flashbacks by Peter to happier times add depth on the other hand Ed reflecting back to his childhood seems out of place although that provides some understanding as to his Bushian philosophy of the end always justifies the means.

Harriet Klausner