Book Review--The Mystery of Breathing, by Perri Klass

Dr. Maggie Claymore is at the top of her profession. A neonatologist, she works with the smallest and sickest premature babies, ones so ill that other doctors might give up on them. She is fiercely devoted to the babies, sometimes to the point where others thinks she tries to save babies whose chance for any kind of decent quality of life is very small. However, she is a very talented and dedicated doctor, and she is in line for a promotion at work. Personally, she doesn't have kids, but she has a terrific husband, also a doctor. Life is pretty good.

But Maggie's life starts to unravel when she gets an anonymous letter, one saying, among other things, that she harms her patients and that the doctors she trains hate working with her. And the harassment doesn't stop with one letter. Maggie and some of her colleagues keep getting increasingly hateful letters, and finally the accuser goes public and puts up posters around the hospital, warning parents to avoid allowing Maggie to treat their child. Worst of all, the letters and posters blame her for the death of a toddler who died in the hospital the previous year.

You'd think someone would notice a person putting up posters around the hospital, but no one does. Investigator Donna Grey asks Maggie about any possible personal relationships with coworkers, talks to her husband, and investigates all aspects of her life, but the perpetrator leaves scant evidence.

The book alternates between what's happening in Maggie's life in the present and different times in her past. The interludes from the past are supposed to provide a deeper insight into Maggie's identity, but while they were usually interesting, I didn't always feel that they added a whole lot to the story. Also, I sometimes felt that they interrupted the flow of the story. Things would be getting really interesting in the present, and then the next chapter would abruptly switch to some time in Maggie's past.

The other thing that frustrated me about this book was that it simply left too many loose ends. I don't want to give too much away in explaining exactly how. It was probably more true-to-life than many other books in that regard, but I would have preferred a tidier resolution.