Set Apart delivers an intriguing missing-persons detective story, combined with a plausible view of the inner workings of a fictional national health care system, misused by its overseers to the detriment of the American public. This fast-paced suspense novel is more than just a story; it contrasts sordid opportunism with the pursuit of high ideals, and taps into contemporary concerns as it offers a thought-proving glimpse of an alarming and possible future. As the President marks the first anniversary of federally-run health care with speeches and a parade, D.C. detective Gordon Sand investigates the disappearance of a woman from a parking lot. A few city blocks away, his sister, a health care databank administrator, is privy to inner workings of the mighty Health Care Board and potent behind-the-scenes data that rank people by level of importance. Ninety minutes to the north, in sleepy Dorsey Pennsylvania, Gordon’s physician brother observes the steady decline of his patients’ health services. From different vantage points they are seeing evidence of the same noxious collusion, rising at the juncture of power and self-interest.

This debut novel is a deceptively chilling tale too credible to ignore a timely tale of corruption and moral perversion that could be a threat to us all. It will leave you wondering, after you’ve turned the last page, whether it could really happen, whether it’s happening even now to someone, somewhere.