The Cadaver's Ball

There are times when a trusted "friend" is so filled with hatred that he will do anything possible to ruin the other. Ed, Peter, and Beth had been friends through medical school. At the Cadaver's Ball, the somewhat ghoulish-named celebration that is the closest thing to a senior prom the hardworking medical students have, Ed confidently presents Beth with an engagement ring. She reluctantly has to tell him that she has already agreed to marry Peter---and Ed's life explodes.

From then on, Ed's main goal is to make Beth realize she made the wrong choice---but fate intervenes. A car crash takes her life and that of the baby she and Peter had been expecting. Peter was the one driving, and the accident comes close to wrecking his own life irretrievably.

Beth's death torches Ed's blazing hatred of Peter and he builds a complex and terrible program to destroy Peter. Peter doesn't suspect the cause of his growing difficulties until he becomes a suspect in the death of a patient. He must find a way to reclaim his life---if it is not already too late.

In this riveting psychological thriller, Charles Atkins demonstrates his rare skill for creating passionate characters with a range of motivations, from obsession and vengeance to self-preservation.