July 1st is Transition Day at Pittsburgh’s Angels of Mercy Medical Center, the most dangerous day of the hospital year. Today new untested interns arrive for duty. Lydia Fiore, the new ER attending physician, knows that this is not the best day to begin her new job. Her fears are more than realized when the son of the chief of surgery dies under her care.

More problems rapidly pile up for Lydia -- the murder of a gay-rights activist, a mysterious stalker, a plot to start a race riot, and the threat of losing her job. She makes new friends, and enemies: Gina, the resident at Mercy; Nora, the charge nurse; Amanda, a medical student; and Trey, a handsome paramedic. In spite of their differences and hidden secrets, they all work together to save lives and learn to rely on each other.

Filled with exciting emergency room action and hospital politics, LIFELINES is a fast and interesting read. Lyons characters are diverse and true-to-life because she writes what she knows. She is trained in pediatric emergency medicine and has worked as a crisis counselor and in numerous crisis centers. LIFELINES is her first novel. I look forward to reading her second novel, WARNING SIGNS, which is due to be released in January 2009.

August 9, 2008