Doctor Blood Moon

Book excerpt: Doctor Blood Moon is a love story cum murder mystery cum coming-of-age novel. It centers on a physician striving to reach his full human potential after years in a smothering professional career and a bad marriage. the book is also about the risks and rewards of life in the city of Los Angeles. Johnny Blood, the leading heart surgeon in Southern California, grew up on a dirt-poor Crow Indian reservation in Montana. a basketball scholarship to UCLA was his way out. He attended Harvard Medical School on scholarship and eventually reached the peak of his profession through monk-like dedication. In spite of his success, his failing marriage and the mysterious death of a Nobel laureate patient rattled his self-confidence. As the novel begins, Johnny sets out to reinvent himself as a man, physician, citizen, husband, father, and friend through the agency of people on their own journeys: mainly a beautiful Greek film actress named Michaela and Johnny's nephew, Nicky, an Afghanistan vet whom Johnny rescued twice, first from the Crow reservation and then from the mean streets of Los Angeles.