How far will determined men go to protect their financial interests? Dr. Harry Corbett begins to find out when his wife's death in hospital on the eve of surgery affects him to the existence of a mysterious ruthless killer - sophisticated, cool, and lethal. Anton Perchek, master of torture, is known in international terrorist circles simply as 'The Doctor'. Harry's wife, a journalist, had come too close to exposing the schemes of a callous group of insurance executives committed to using any non-violent means of getting rid of high-risk patients from their companies' rolls. But they have no idea of the malignant force they have unleashed on the innocent. Only Harry Corbett understands the threat, when his wife's murder is quickly followed by that alone of his patients. Now Harry is the prime suspect in two murders - soon to become three - as he faces up to the most frightening physician in fiction since Hannibal Lecter.