Liza Larkin

Liza Larkin, a recent med-school graduate on the cusp of her pathology internship, isn’t like most people. She would rather study the human brain or pound the heavy bag at the gym than spend time with others, and as an outsider she doesn’t let societal norms confine her. So when a stranger’s picture sends Liza’s schizophrenic mother deeper into psychosis, Liza does a reverse-image search to identify him. Upon discovering he is a trauma surgeon at a Massachusetts teaching hospital, she impulsively changes her pathology residency program of choice to his center.

Liza Larkin, a socially aberrant pathology resident, relies on these words of her late father to guide her through a world she doesn’t feel a part of. If not for his training over the years and her psychiatrist’s ongoing care, she might be in jail—or worse. So when her colleague, Megan, worries something awful has happened to her aunt, Liza does what she has learned to do. She helps. She drives Megan to Boston to look for the woman. It doesn’t take long. Megan’s aunt lies dead in her condo, in what is soon ruled a freakish accident.