Witch-Hunt by Larry R. Leichter

About the book

A young African-American physician, Roy Lawrence, is accused of practicing improper medicine by the politically powerful hospital chief of staff, Dr. Donald Horsmann, a man born in Argentina of an escaped Nazi father and a white South African mother. When Horsmann is brutally killed in a parking garage at a time in which the hospital based hearings are occurring on a daily basis, we meet a cast of characters including Horsmann's partners, his cheated-upon wife, herself involved in an affair with another physician, his mistress, a nurse assistant, another nurse assistant he mentally abuses, and the surviving children, brother and sister, of an African-American patient he kills during surgery.

Framed for Horsmann's killing, and having a motive, Roy, the young brilliant African-American physician is put on trial for murder. Defended by his former Harvard roommate, Barry Goodman, (a prominent white Boston attorney, himself accused by a student, who turns out to be Horsmann's daughter, Britany, of a rape he did not commit), Roy falls in love with Courtney Williams, the beautiful daughter of the patient killed by Horsmann. In attempting to uncover the real killer and discovering it might be her younger brother, Jamal, Courtney faces and survives several attempts on her life.

The novel first transports the reader back in time, then forward in time, bringing together these protagonists and antagonists to a climactic end where the reader discovers the true identity of the person behind the vicious killing, Horsmann's disgruntled partner, Jeff Ruby. This man is captured along with Barry Goodman, who with Courtney's assistance attempts to discover the real killer's identity. Both men are now accused of killing the third partner in the group, and shooting and nearly fatally wounding Courtney. Ruby, the one behind Horsmann's killing, is let out of prison on his own recognizance, and only the reader and Roy Lawrence, the jailed physician, know this fact.

By the novel's end we realize that the only one who can clear, and thus save Roy is his young love Courtney, unconscious in the ICU, and the only one who can save Courtney from Dr. Ruby, who at this very moment is on his way to the ICU, is Roy, unfortunately trapped in jail, accused and on trial for a murder he did not commit. With the assistance of a former patient, a prison guard who has been watching over him, Roy is able to escape from prison and arrive at the ICU in time, and with some inadvertent help from Britany, who has been keeping a bedside vigil, both save the life of the woman he loves, and clear his name.

About the author

Larry R. Leichter, MD, JD, is a board certified internist and gastroenterologist as well as a fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology and the American College of Legal Medicine. He has also been admitted to the Florida Bar and practices medical negligence law. Dr. Leichter has retired from his active medical practice but remains a volunteer instructor in gastroenterology at a hospital affiliated with the University of Miami School of Medicine. The author of numerous scientific papers, Dr. Leichter, who has been writing fiction since the age of 9 and won his high school creative writing competition, has also authored the fiction novels Epidemic and StateGames.

Dr. Leichter currently resides in Hollywood, Florida with his wife of 26 years, Sally, and their Yorkshire Terrier Winnie. Their daughter Michelle is a law student in Connecticut and their son Jeffrey is in medical school in Missouri.