Invited to play in a buddys weekend Member-Guest tournament, golf writer Pete Hacker encounters the president of the Shuttlecock Club, a strange, tantrum-throwing cheat. When the man is murdered during the tournament, there are plenty of suspects.

Dr. Ryan Kendall, dermatologist, thought it was just another day of patients in his office. High powered attorney Drew Garrett thought it was just a routine skin examination. Until Dr. Kendall saw the lesion on his back. Until what was just another ordinary day turned malignant. Dr. Chad Williams, noted D.C. pathologist, controls their fate. His microscope is his tool and weapon. Routine pathology is turned upside down. Lives and families are turned every which way by the pathologists fears and whims. Dr. Bob Williams, Chads father, faces the ultimate nightmare of medical and family betrayal. Their lives become irrevocably interwined in the realities of day to day real medicine and deception. No doctors appointment will ever be routine again.

Presents a series of personal essays concerning the author's life and her experiences with death, including the sudden death of her father, her mother's lingering illness and death, and her own suicide attempt.

No advertisers to please, no censors to placate, no commercial interruptions every eleven minutes, demanding cliffhangers to draw viewers back after the commercial breaks: HBO has re-written the rules of television; and the result has been nothing short of a cultural ground shift. The HBO Effect details how the fingerprints of HBO are all over contemporary film and television. Their capability to focus on smaller markets made shows like Sex and the City, The Sopranos, The Wire, and even the more recent Game of Thrones and Girls, trigger shows on basic cable networks to follow suit. HBO pioneered the use of HDTV and the widescreen format, production and distribution deals leading to market presence, and the promotion of greater diversity on TV (discussing issues of class and race). The HBO Effect examines this rich and unique history for clues to its remarkable impact upon television and popular culture. It's time to take a wide-angle look at HBO as a producer of American culture.