This was an easy read by an author who writes so logically that one can clearly follow the lead character as he investigates a crime allegedly committed by a professional colleague. This fictional story is also important on another front: there is data about the days before abortion was legal. The story gives the reader a birds’ eye view into the outcomes for women who have no other choice than to seek out a back alley abortionist. Not real pretty! Fortunately for Dr. Lee, he had a loyal friend on his side.

Not the book to read right after you've had surgery. Overall I enjoyed the story but even though there were lots of footnotes explaining some of the medical terms there was still a lot I didn't know.

Audiobook. Book 5 stars, narration by Nick Podehl 4 stars.

An early Crichton, published under the name Jeffery Hudson.

I've read quite a few Crichton novels through the years. This book is now my favorite.

Conceived in Cambridge near MIT, my college aged mother ended up marrying my father. We've never discussed if she considered an illegal abortion. Born in Boston around the time this book was written, and later living near Beacon Hill while going to college myself, it was fun listening to descriptions of neighborhoods, streets, hospitals, etc.

This book is important to come back to in 2022, for thoughtful discourse on the subject of abortion (both legal and illegal) and how it effects us.

One night Boston pathologist John Berry receives a call from his friend Dr. Arthur Lee. Lee has been arrested and being held for murder in the death of a patient to whom he allegedly gave an abortion (this book was published in 1968, and THANK YOU, U.S. SUPREME COURT...and always be wary when rights that one has possessed are threatened. That way lies tyranny). Berry, who has reasons of his own to be interested, as he is assisting Lee (he thought about it all night. "By morning [he] had decided that the law was unfair. He had decided that a doctor could play God in a lot of crappy ways, but this was a good way. I had seen a patient in trouble [who desperately needed an abortion] and I had refused to help her when it was within my power. That was what bothered me - I had denied her treatment. It was just as bad as denying penicillin to a sick man, just as cruel, just as foolish."

Berry immediately starts investigating. The first thing he discovers is that the dead girl is the daughter of Dr. J.D. Randall, one of the lions of Boston society and Boston medicine. This is a taut medical thriller with lots of potential criminals and if the murderers when found, aren't all that surprising, the chase is great.

Now, the book. It was written in 1968, with pre-Roe abortion laws, 1968 medical standards (one researcher just dumps the corpses of rats he is using in a regular paper bag, then in the garbage. That might have been the scariest thing in the whole book.) and 1968 attitudes and language. To Crichton's credit it is typically "bad" characters who use racially charged words, but they are certainly here. My view on that (and I realize it is solely my own) is that those works are terrible and used to continue the systematic racism we see every day in this country. However, one will lose the experience of a LOT of the world's literature if it is all completely dismissed because of racial terms, the use of which show an absolutely true picture of life in Boston in 1968. I, myself am not willing to lose all that literature. I'm a smart woman. I can separate and understand. But these words are here.

As most readers know Michael Crichton was a doctor and an author. What all may not know is that he attended both Harvard and Harvard Medicial School, the elite of the elite, and that's why so many of these doctors know or know of each other....at their level there are only a rarefied few. And I don't necessarily get the impression that Crichton believes it, or that John Berry believes it (and that's likely why he's in pathology) but what Crichton is trying to portray is that doctors in this era, this echelon believed they were gods and he does an excellent job of placing the reader in that position at that time.

"Watching [Peterson, the cop], I had a sudden horrifying vision of a uniformed man in heavy boots struggling among ruins, It was a generalized vision, nonspecific, attached to no particular time or place or era." There are passages like this and I remember some from Jurassic Park too that made me understand the potent combination of Crichton the writer and Crichton the scientist - made him outstanding and we lost him far too young.

Quarantine book. Currently available on Kindle Unlimited.

Not my sort of thing this although I normally love Michael Crichton. The story was too weak. The plot was held up with either complicated medical information of padding that had no real reference to the plot at all.

2.5 out of 5 - Early Michael Crichton, before he hit his stride as an author.

A Case of Need was Michael Crichton's first published novel and, surprisingly, was a 1969 Edgar Award winner.

Within its pages, the reader can experience the elements of a great Crichton novel, a story that moves along, mostly believable characters, a little suspense, and a solid treatment of the subject area: the medical profession and, at the time, illegal, abortions.

It was surprising that the book won an Edgar, primarily because the book felt like it needed editing to make it crisper and it didn't read like a polished work. Compared to The Andromeda Strain published a year later, this story was a diamond in the rough.

As with many of his novels, there is a lot of supplemental information contained in appendixes and notes at the end of many chapters. The photographs and background of Mr. Crichton's life at the end of the book were particularly appreciated.

I've enjoyed most of his books and miss his voice, intellect, and imaginative works. If you are a Crichton fan, you will want to include his early books like this one in your reading list. Just know it isn't one of his strongest offerings.

Jeffrey Hudson is a penname of Michael Crichton. This was a fast paced novel that not only held my interest but kept me guessing and analyzing. The protagonist is a pathologist, and he's trying to clear his physician friend of murder via a botched abortion. Although I put this on the contemporary shelf, it was written in the 60s, before abortion was legal. More and more clues and complexity is revealed as the protagonist unravels the mystery. I was a bit disappointed in the ending, because although the guilty party is revealed, some of the story's complexity isn't tied up. The ending left me a bit flat, after a long build-up. It's a good read, though, and being a nurse, I loved how much medicine was weaved through. That made it doubly interesting. I also liked the different attitudes represented regarding abortion. I was pretty young when it was legalized, so I found the different takes the characters took on the subject interesting.

This is the first Michael Crichton book I've read, and I couldn't put it down. The pervading theme was the moral and ethical decisions doctors had to make concerning abortions -- performing them, knowingly not reporting (and, in fact, covering for)reputable doctors who performed them in hospital settings. This book was originally published under the name of Jeffery Hudson in 1968 when abortion was still illegal in the USA, and may have been intended to stir the public to legalize it. I personally am Pro-life.

I would not want to spoil the story for you if you haven't read it, but it revolves around a doctor who has performed abortions with the knowledge and even some behind the scenes help of other doctors on staff at his hospital. Dr. Lee is arrested when a patient is brought into the emergency room after a botched abortion and dies. Her step-mother tells the police that Dr. Lee did the abortion. His friend, Dr. John Berry in Pathology, determines to find the real abortionist when Lee says he did not do it. I will leave it there and let you follow along with Dr. Berry in his informal investigation.

This is was Michael Crichton's first published novel written under a pseudonym. To many characters that I really didn't care about set in the 60's about a doctor trying to prove his friend was innocent of a botched illegal abortion. It try's to raise the ethical and moral questions of the legality of abortion through the eyes of the medical profession. It was a quick and forgettable read that showed that Michael Crichton's writing got better with age and experience. My favorite is still The Prey.

3.5 stars. Crichton's first book, which he published in his 20s (remarkably, really).The narrative explores the ethical complexities of doctors providing abortion and the question of medical need within a thriller framework to excellent effect. It has an engaging plot with medical conflicts intensified by a mystery of political coverups and possible murder. The characters are compelling and add emotional weight to the tale. I personally loved the footnotes and appendices - the information is really interesting and grants the story realism.

This book would be classified under, “Medical Fiction” because it deals with medical surgeons, and doctors trying to unravel the mystery of the murder or suicide of Karen Randall. Dr. Lee a young pathologist is accused of an illegal abortion. Art Lee’s lawyer didn’t want to deal with the case so he abandoned him with no help. When John Berry heard about this crisis he came to help his friend and try to find the real story of the death of Karen Randall. As he finds later in the novel, the history of Karen he starts to get more into what he is against, because he found out that Karen disliked her stepmother and father, and that shows a small sign of murder from either one. Then as he goes to the University of Boston College, he meets doctor Werner who holds all of Karen’s medical files and this man is Karen’s uncle. Peter Randall (Karen’s dad) brings him for a “cup of tea” and says that he would not do this to his own girl and that he was with his wife that very same day the death occurred. John asks Peter were he could find her lost boyfriend and when he found him there is a gang war and he gets severely injured and in that very hospital room is Karen’s roommate with what they think a suicide attempt, he later goes to the crime scene, and there is a missing theme to Karen’s death.
I thought the writing of this book was very precise and wordy. He made the reader always on your toes and waiting for the suspense. I thought the strengths were that it was well written and well thought out however there was a weakness. This book was to long was 416 pages, and I thought that was to long for a plot like this and he extended it way to long. I choose this book because I am a huge fan of Michael Crichton’s novels and I wanted to explore something other than genetics.
I would compare this book to the Five Patients another one of Michael Crichton’s best sellers because of the medical theme. I connected to this book around the middle because, the Randall family was getting very suspicious and I thought it was the step mother that killed Karen. I would recommend this book to people that are interested in medical mysteries.
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Okay, the plot was interesting. But the cultural and moral snapshot of doctors in the late sixties was VERY interesting. The arrogance, the sexism, the racism, and the elitism were pretty fascinating from the perspective of one who grew up several decades later. The lawyer/doctor/cop dynamics were amusing also.