Cluster

About the Book

Th e investigation of a rare blood disease and the development of an unexpected romance come clashing into a sinister international plot. Dr. Dan Murphy is puzzled why his healthy 28 year old brother develops a rare blood disease. As part of an academic course in environmental medicine, he becomes acquainted with Anna Carlson, a young journalist pursuing a graduate degree in public health. With Anna’s encouragement, they navigate environmental government agencies, while Anna conducts a research project for her degree to determine the cause of the blood disease, which they learn has affected two other young men. Dr. Murphy is further challenged in his evaluations of unusual symptoms in workers at a local chemical company. Along the way, Dan and Anna fall in love. At the same time, Parker Barrows, a former British intelligence officer who lost his wife and leg in an IRA explosion in London, has nefarious plans to enact revenge and interfere with diplomatic negotiations on the fate of Northern Ireland in the Brexit agreement. As Dan and Anna investigate the cause of the diseases, Barrows and his henchmen continue their plans to sabotage the Brexit negotiations. Dan and Anna eventually determine the cause of the diseases and their paths converge with Barrows’ in an explosive ending.

About the Author

DR. BOB MCCUNNEY is a specialist in internal medicine and occupational and environmental medicine. As a practicing physician in the Pulmonary Division of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, he is also a member of the Harvard Medical School faculty, and a visiting research professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is a former director of Environmental Medicine at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. McCunney received a BS in chemical engineering from Drexel University, an MS in environmental health from the University of Minnesota, an MD from the Thomas Jefferson University Medical School, and an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health. He trained in internal medicine at Northwestern University Medical Center in Chicago. He has served as editor in chief of five medical textbooks and authored or coauthored more than one hundred twenty-five peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. He has also coauthored a book on “Getting recruited to play college baseball”. While medicine is his life’s passion, he enjoys boating, skiing, biking and adventure travel. He is a proud father of his son, Rob and daughter, Kelsey. This is his first novel.