From Library Journal
In his sixth suspense novel, White (Remote Control, LJ 1/97) and his protagonist psychologist Alan Gregory take on managed healthcare and come up with another compulsive read. A 15-year-old girl attempts suicide and turns mute, her two-year-old sister is dying from a rare disease while her health insurer won't pay for expensive experimental treatment, and the doctor who heads the insurance company is found shot to death. While Gregory treats the teenager and consults with police, his cop friend Sam Purdy (an in-law of principals in the case) has to keep his distance, and complications mount. White ties up all the loose ends, concerning death threats, blackmail, murder, extortion, and suicide, after a spine-tingling chase through the conveyor system of the new Denver airport. But he leaves strings dangling regarding his appealing cast of continuing characters (such as Gregory's wife Lauren's health and neighbor Adrienne's love life), guaranteeing anticipation for number seven.-?Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., Va.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
When Boulder, Colorado, psychologist Alan Gregory is asked to come to a hospital emergency room to consult on a puzzling case of attempted suicide by a 15-year-old girl, he finds a teen with more than her fair share of problems. Merritt Strait's mom is a TV investigative reporter; her stepdad is a psychologist handling custody evaluations; and their toddler daughter Chaney--Merritt's half-sister--has a heart problem that only an experimental procedure can remedy, but their managed care company, MedExcel, won't pay for it. Merritt is mute when Gregory begins to talk with her in the hospital; the discovery of the dead body of the head of MedExcel--and of bloody clothes and a gun in and around Merritt's room--suggests she may have a good reason for silence. Gregory proceeds patiently with the stalwart teen and more aggressively with various adults with the help of his police detective pal Sam Purdy. Given White's solid reputation and lively debate about the controversial issues animating his Alan Gregory thrillers, expect reader interest. Mary Carroll

From Kirkus Reviews
Boulder psychologist Alan Gregory confronts a hapless family's mismanaged-care nightmare, in White's overstuffed sixth thriller. The toddler of Alan's newly transplanted colleague, John Trent, has been stricken with a rare strain of viral myocarditis for which MedExcel, the family's HMO, refuses the only available treatment as too experimental; meanwhile, his wife, TV news personality Brenda Strait, is being harassed by threats and vandalism. As their daughter Chaney lies dying for lack of funds, Trent wonders how much worse things could get. Here's how much: Brenda's daughter Merritt, 15, tries to kill herself, gets dragged back to life refusing to speak, and turns out to be hiding a handgun and a bloody outfit that tie her to the murder of Dr. Edward Robilio, the founder and chairman of MedExcel. Assigned to Merritt's case, Alan finds crippling new connections among the characters at every turn. His cop friend Sam Purdy is the brother-in-law Brenda's been feuding with for years. Dr. Terence Gusman, who chairs the medical exam review board at MedExcel, is the brother of a woman fatally traumatized by Brenda's hard-nosed reporting. Even Alan's urologist neighbor Adrienne, who's been sleeping with the Trent/Strait's lawyer, thinks she prefers the lawyer's wife. As he rolls like a fifth wheel from one crime scene to the next and struggles to get his mute patient to open up--even after she starts to talk, her shocking, predictable revelations are delayed by a series of shameless ploys--Alan goggles at the unholy network of lovers, codependents, and betrayers. The result is that White (Remote Control, 1997, etc.) loses his initial focus on the indictment of uncaring HMOs; by the time you stumble to the center of this labyrinth, you're amazed that the medical community can lift a finger to help this dysfunctional community. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Book Description
An emergency call brings Dr. Alan Gregory to an ICU where fifteen-year-old Merritt Strait is recovering from a suicide attempt. Her stepsister already lies near death-after being refused an experimental treatment that could save her life. When an executive with the family's HMO is shot dead, Alan discovers the shocking truth about Merritt-and a family that will stop at nothing to save its own.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Critical Conditions is another pulse-pounding psychological romp featuring the charming crack psychologist Dr. Alan Gregory. Gregory is called in after Merritt Strait -- a 15-year-old girl whose stepsister is on the verge of death following her HMO's refusal to allow an experimental yet potentially lifesaving operation -- allegedly attempts to end her own life. Soon the HMO's leading executive is found dead, and evidence -- shockingly enough -- points to Merritt as the murderer.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Alan Gregory is called to the ICU before anyone knows the patient's name or what dark demons drove her to attempt suicide. But fifteen-year-old Merritt Strait is no ordinary depressed teenager. The daughter of a hard-charging investigative reporter and a psychologist, she is also the stepsister of a little girl at the heart of a medical tragedy in the making. While Merritt clings to life in her hospital room, Chaney Strait lies near death in another hospital with an infection that is slowly destroying her heart. Denied an experimental new treatment that could save her life by the Straits' managed-care provider, Chaney has become a symbol of a health care system driven by costs, not care. And Alan believes that somewhere along the way, Merritt has gotten lost in all the media attention surrounding her younger sibling. But as Merritt begins to recover, yet still refuses to speak, Alan suspects that something else may lie behind her suicide attempt. Then a wealthy executive of the family's HMO is found dead ... and Alan and Denver detective Sam Purdy uncover shocking evidence that links Merritt to his death. With his wife, Boulder County D.A. Lauren Crowder, away helping out her ailing mother at the risk of her own fragile health, Alan must sort through the most complex and elusive case of his career, along with his own feelings of loneliness, anger, and helplessness.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

In his sixth suspense novel, White (Remote Control, LJ 1/97) and his protagonist psychologist Alan Gregory take on managed healthcare and come up with another compulsive read. A 15-year-old girl attempts suicide and turns mute, her two-year-old sister is dying from a rare disease while her health insurer won't pay for expensive experimental treatment, and the doctor who heads the insurance company is found shot to death. While Gregory treats the teenager and consults with police, his cop friend Sam Purdy (an in-law of principals in the case) has to keep his distance, and complications mount. White ties up all the loose ends, concerning death threats, blackmail, murder, extortion, and suicide, after a spine-tingling chase through the conveyor system of the new Denver airport. But he leaves strings dangling regarding his appealing cast of continuing characters (such as Gregory's wife Lauren's health and neighbor Adrienne's love life), guaranteeing anticipation for number seven. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/97.]Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., Va.

Kirkus Reviews

Boulder psychologist Alan Gregory confronts a hapless family's mismanaged-care nightmare, in White's overstuffed sixth thriller. The toddler of Alan's newly transplanted colleague, John Trent, has been stricken with a rare strain of viral myocarditis for which MedExcel, the family's HMO, refuses the only available treatment as too experimental; meanwhile, his wife, TV news personality Brenda Strait, is being harassed by threats and vandalism. As their daughter Chaney lies dying for lack of funds, Trent wonders how much worse things could get. Here's how much: Brenda's daughter Merritt, 15, tries to kill herself, gets dragged back to life refusing to speak, and turns out to be hiding a handgun and a bloody outfit that tie her to the murder of Dr. Edward Robilio, the founder and chairman of MedExcel. Assigned to Merritt's case, Alan finds crippling new connections among the characters at every turn. His cop friend Sam Purdy is the brother-in-law Brenda's been feuding with for years. Dr. Terence Gusman, who chairs the medical exam review board at MedExcel, is the brother of a woman fatally traumatized by Brenda's hard-nosed reporting. Even Alan's urologist neighbor Adrienne, who's been sleeping with the Trent/Strait's lawyer, thinks she prefers the lawyer's wife. As he rolls like a fifth wheel from one crime scene to the next and struggles to get his mute patient to open up—even after she starts to talk, her shocking, predictable revelations are delayed by a series of shameless ploys—Alan goggles at the unholy network of lovers, codependents, and betrayers. The result is that White (Remote Control, 1997, etc.) loses his initial focus on the indictment of uncaring HMOs; bythe time you stumble to the center of this labyrinth, you're amazed that the medical community can lift a finger to help this dysfunctional community.

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