Dead Hours

As in Uri Adelman’s previous novels, events follow one another so quickly that the hero does not know where the next blow will strike. Noam Danzig, a senior resident in surgery, wants to save lives but finds himself accused of negligent homicide. Tamar, injured in an accident, dies on the operating table and her father, Enrique Beiliss, head of several major construction firms, accuses the young doctor of murder and threatens revenge. Noam, however, is sure that the operation was flawless. What, then, was the cause of death? He begins to investigate and soon discovers that another operation went wrong. The common factor was a drug that both patients took before surgery. The moment Noam starts to suspect that the drug is at fault, it`s open season. A woman he examined in the ER files a sexual harassment complaint, he is called up for reserve duty in Jenin, a hotbed of the Intifada, and Beiliss sees to it that he becomes the most slandered man in the country. But Beiliss is not the villain of the piece, nor is the pharmaceutical firm, which simply agreed to cooperate with the defense establishment on secret research for chemical and biological weapons. “Patriotism is the criminal’s last refuge,” says Rozen, a senior Defense Ministry official who sees himself as guilty. He is concerned with national security, for which he doesn’t hesitate to sacrifice the innocent. Now, however, he has to deal with a determined doctor who doesn’t accept his slogans. Noam is not fazed by the many dangers: a hired hit man kills Halperin, the anesthetist who helped Jonathan get to the truth, and wounds Yael, Noam’s friend. Noa, Yael’s cousin, is kidnapped and murdered by a psychopathic police detective, who hides the body and plans to murder Noam. But Noam is always a step ahead of his enemies. Justice is done, and the guilty pay the price.