Do No Harm by Robert Pobi

First Sentence:  Dr. Jennifer Delmonico was approaching the second tower, which translated to somewhere around seventeen minutes at her usual pace.

Lucas Page is a polymath, astrophysicist, professor, husband, father, and ex-FBI agent.  During a gala with his wife Erin, a surgeon, a video is played memorializing all the doctors who died by suicide or falls in the past year. Page begins to see a pattern in the deaths and contacts the FBI. Page, and Special Agent Alice Whitaker, with whom he’s worked before, are joined by NYPD Detective Russo in finding a link between the deaths.

It’s not uncommon to have a protagonist with scars or injuries, but Page surpasses them all. He has a wealth of scars, a prosthetic arm and leg, and a glass eye.  But his brain is very much intact and always working. 

The book is, initially, very enjoyable. There is an interesting protagonist, although a lot of characters, excellent dialogue, humor, and the author conveyed emotion very well.  However, one becomes tired of hearing about Page’s injuries and prosthetics. 

Pobi’s descriptions are great until one becomes annoyed with his use of 15 words where six would have sufficed, and it takes these brilliant people two-thirds of the book to finally realize the motive the reader may have figured out a long time past.  At that point, one starts to look to see how far they’ve read, and how much is left.  That’s when it becomes obvious that the author desperately needs an editor.  The book should have been 332, not 432 pages long.  More is not always better.

An interesting anomaly is when, in talking about a plastic ghost gun made with a 3-D printer, the characters note that the plastic is an “Ender product and they sold somewhere around three hundred thousand pounds last year.”  Considering the book is set in New York City, and all the characters are American, one wonders how that crept in.  There is also a scene with a gunshot wound where the Page’s actions make no sense at all and even the most inexperienced person would have known what to do.

The writing is repetitive at times and needed a stronger proofreader. This would have helped the book overall. There are a couple very good twists and red herrings, which are appreciated.  However, although it is an amusing trope, cars don’t really catch fire and blow up that easily.  On the other hand, one might envy Whitacre’s driving ability, as long as she’s not driving your car. 

DO NO HARM is a quick read; it’s fast-paced, it’s violent, it’s funny, has interesting characters, and great descriptions—although sometimes they go on far too long.  Overall, it’s a pretty good read; more than an airplane read certainly, but it really did need tightening up. 

 
DO NO HARM (NoirThriller-Lucas Page- NYC-Contemp)
Robert Pobi – 3^rd in series
Minotaur Books, Aug 2022, 432 pp.
Rating: G+/B+