Dr. Grey had been a partner with Dr. Harvey Riker, founder of a clinic for AIDS research in New York City, They had been keeping the results of their newfound cure quiet in order to amass more data and keep their federal funding coming. There was opposition to the funding on many levels. At the same hospital his funding had preempted the expected funding for a cancer wing which was the fondest hope of Dr, Lowell as a tribute to his dead wife Erin who had succumbed to cancer.

Also vitriolic in his opposition to AIDS research was the televangelist Reverend Ernest Sanders, portrayed in the novel as pure scum. The novel moves to Sara Lowell daughter of Dr. Lowel, who, despite her physical handicaps, has become a popular and brilliant telejournalist. On this night, she has Reverend Sanders in the spotlight, focusing on the millions he has acquired and his failure to file or pay income taxes. She does well, but he is hard to topple as his friends in high places have him among other nefarious dealings, in a coalition in Washington DC to block AIDS research.

Sara is married to Michael Silverman a pro basketball superstar befriended by Harvey Riker as a young child when his numerous visits to the ER signaled the physical abuse he was suffering. Michael is easily the nicest guy in the novel.  Shortly after Sara’s TV interview a Senator’s son who was a friend of Sara’s is found brutally murdered behind a gay bar. The pieces come together and Lt. Max “Twitch” Bernstein is the chief investigator, and it is not long before the media puts together the former deaths of Riker’s recovering AIDS patients and the death of Bradley.

Politics, religion, greed and the lives of innocent happy and unhappy humans are put together in a well thought out plot with multiple layers. Coben’s characters are very well developed and the novel moves swiftly through a convoluted but clever story line to a quite unexpected conclusion. Miracle Cure was Harlan Coben’s second book and originally published in 1991.

--Thea Davis