Dr. Brian Standish isn't happy. His wife thinks he's a misanthropist, but Brian believes he merely hates most people. He never wanted to be a hematologist, or a doctor for that matter. But he is and doesn't like what he sees daily at Kilminster General, his hospital in the west of England: conceit, philandering, and dissembling, with Big Pharma feeding at the trough while acting as a puppeteer for his colleagues. And then there's the tainted blood scandal, which his fellow doctors and the pharmaceutical industry seem to view as simply inconvenient and best not discussed to avoid upsetting their cozy arrangement. More importantly, why are so many doctors at Kilminster ending up bizarrely dead? Is there a serial killer on the loose? What's more, Brian may be the next murder victim.