Dee Flanery is a practicing doctor with a practice in Australia. Her practice revolves around a large group of stable patients, many of whom she has seen for years. None of her patients are more personal to her than Tom. A 25 year old asthmatic with Asperger’s. Tom has been a patient of Dee’s since he was 5 days old. He grew up in front of her eyes. Perhaps because of this, Dee has a special affection for Tom, and she feels like she knows him in a way.

When Consistent, reliable Tom fails to make his appointment one day, Dee feels a sense of foreboding immediately. When phone calls to Tom go unanswered and Tom’s mother calls the practice in a frantic state saying she can’t find Tom either, Dee knows feels compelled to act. She calls in a welfare check at Tom’s apartment. Tom’s mother, Dee and Tom’s girlfriend Leah approach the apartment with the police. Their worst fears are soon confirmed when Tom Is found deceased in the apartment. All signs point to an asthmatic episode that got out of control. An autopsy quickly confirms an asthmatic episode triggered by an allergen. Dee knows that Tom was too obsessive about his medications to suffer a deadly asthmatic episode and despite what the police say, she feels she owes it to Tom to investigate his death. Dee enlists the help of Raj, Tom’s former boss, and a good friend, and together they launch a private investigation into anyone who could have a motive to get rid of Tom. Secrets;however, like to stay buried and the more Dee and Raj dig, the crazier Dee starts to look. Soon, Dee finds herself in a precarious position with her sanity being challenged and her stability as a physician called into question.
In order to save face and find justice for Tom, Dee must find Tom’s murderer and ensure that he sees justice. The story was interesting enough to keep my attention. I did find the villain of the tale a little hollow. His motivations and character development are lacking a little for me. Dee is an intriguing heroine being that she is middle aged and not involved regularly in detective work or sleuthing in any way. The story does read as the ultimate life nightmare as Dee’s life slowly unravels as she follows the path of breadcrumbs that will lead to unmasking a killer. ( )

Dee Flanery is a gp, with three kids, an ex-husband who has remarried and had twins, and a thriving practice whose patients include Tom, the first of her "practice babies," a person who has been her patient since birth, now in his mid-twenties. He's on the autism spectrum, calls himself "an Aspie," and has a tendency to be obsessive in ways that benefit both his career as a computer security expert, and the management of his potentially dangerous asthma.

When Tom doesn't show up for an appointment, it's out of character and very worrying. His mother doesn't always have the best judgment, but is a devoted mother, and when she can't get the police to take her missing persons report seriously, she asks Dee to help.

When they finally get the police to do, what in the US is called a wellness check, though I didn't see that term in this book set in Australia, Tom is dead. A man who was obsessive about managing his asthma has apparently died of an asthma attack.
Dee doesn't believe it. Tom's girlfriend, Leah, with whom he was planning to have a baby, also does not believe it.

With the police unwilling to investigate--the autopsy came back with a finding of natural causes, so there's from their viewpoint nothing to investigate, Dee and a mutual friend of Dee and Tom, Raj, another computer security expert and Tom's former employer, decide they have to do it on their own.

But where to start? What's the motive? Tom had a large insurance policy, but the beneficiaries are Leah and Tom's severely autistic brother Charlie. Skye is a loving, devoted mother, and Leah shows every sign of being someone who genuinely doesn't care about money.

Then Leah disappears. And Skye's live-in boyfriend, Glen, seems devoted to Skye, but might well think of that money as potentially taking the burden of Charlie's care off of Sophie and himself.

Yet there's also the genetics researcher who helps couples with the money to have genetically healthy babies. Tom and Leah had been seeing him, on a referral from Dee, because while a baby with Tom's issues is one thing, a severely autistic child like Charlie is another. Adam Fairborn is the best there is for what they want, even if he is rather cold and lacking in people skills.

And Tom, with his obsessiveness and attention to detail, decided to check Fairborn out. Leah, before she vanished, suggested he'd found something troubling.

There's a lot going on here, and I haven't even touched on Dee and Raj, or Dee and her children. Or the police who don't really take a female professional with relevant expertise on the medical condition of the deceased seriously.

It's interesting and worth a read.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher, and am reviewing it voluntarily. ( )