John Bishop. Act of Revenge. Mantid Press, 2020.

John Bishop has recently come out with the third book in his Doc Brady series. Here Houston orthopedic surgeon Jim Bob Brady finds himself caught up in another mystery. In this case, it does not have anything to do with his own medical practice.

While on vacation skiing in Aspen (hey, this guy is a doctor), he literally runs into another M.D. from Houston, Texas, plastic surgeon Lou Edwards. The two men’s wives become friends. Dr. Brady accompanies Dr. Edwards one morning to observe his practice. We get an interesting insight into the science of plastic surgery. We also understand that Edwards is quite skilled at his work. Dr. Edwards confides to Brady that he is having serious financial problems.

Back in the eighties and early nineties, he provided silicone breast implants for many women. Now in 1997, people have discovered that these implants sometimes have unwanted and devastating side effects. Along with other plastic surgeons in the country who did such work, he is being sued by many of his former patients. In fact, he operated on his own wife, and now she has lupus, which may be a side effect from the silicone.

To make matters worse, his malpractice insurance has not been renewed. He will probably have to declare bankruptcy. It turns out that the insurance company has insured many plastic surgeons in Texas and has decided to let go of all of them. The doctors decide to picket outside the headquarters of the company, also in Houston.

Doctors picketing make the news. Dr. Edwards is filmed on television threatening Paul Thompson, the president of the insurance company. That same morning Thompson is murdered. Guess who the prime suspect is? So what does Dr. Edwards do? He goes into hiding. Not even Mrs. Edwards knows where he is.

Oh, Thompson lived in the top floor penthouse in the same condos where the Bradys live. Dr. Brady finds himself once again in the middle of a mess. He wants to help his friend and his wife’s friend. As is true in many mystery stories, our victim is not an especially likeable fellow, though it looks like the insurance cancellations were strictly business.

While Bishop still tells his story in a leisurely manner—we can easily imagine his Texas drawl—Act of Revenge has fewer lulls in the action than the first two books. There is a lot going on. Yes, our first person narrator Dr. Brady still describes some of the meals they have and how beautiful his wife is, but he is mostly too busy.

One interesting addition is that now Brady is a deputy. Because Brady helped the police in the two previous crimes, when Chief Lombardo and his daughter Detective Beeson see he lives near the victim and is a friend of the suspect, they deputize him to help on this case.

There are a number of curiosities. As Brady goes over Edwards’ billing records, he notes that he regularly gives a ten percent refund to patients who pay cash. In fact, he once gave Paul Thompson a face lift with that discount. The Edwards’ only child is a model. They say she lives in California but has been working in Paris. It appears that she wants little or nothing to do with them. Mrs. Edwards does not know how to reach her to tell her of her father’s plight.

The three people who work for Dr. Edwards speak very highly of him, but something does not seem quite right.

And the murder itself is hard to explain. Dr. Edwards’ car (ID’d by make, model, and license plate) was in the condo parking garage at the time of the murder. No one entered or left the building during that time except someone using Thompson’s key pass—needed to get into the garage and the elevator to the apartment. Thompson was killed around 8:30 a.m. and apparently had not yet gone out at all since he woke up.

Was there more going on between Edwards and Thompson than merely a disgruntled client and former patient? Why was Edwards hiding out? Where was he hiding out? Why did his daughter seem indifferent to both her father’s problem and her mother’s illness? How does any of this make sense?

Another good yarn from Bishop, and the most lively of the three Doc Brady mysteries so far.