Doc Doc Zeus:
A Novel of White Coat Crime
by Thomas Keech
“A complex, multilayered, and psychologically acute tale about a predatory physician: well done.” –Kirkus Reviews
In a 2016 national investigation, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution examined documents that described disturbing acts of physician sexual abuse in every state. Rapes by OB/GYNs, seductions by psychiatrists, fondling by anesthesiologists and ophthalmologists, and molestations by pediatricians and radiologists occur far too often. Victims were babies, adolescents, women in their 80s, drug addicts and jail inmates, and survivors of childhood sexual abuse. This culture of power and secrecy too often goes unpunished, and author Thomas Keech is on a mission to tell the untold story of the causes of and cures for physician sexual predation.
Fans of Jodi Picoult and Scott Turow, readers who enjoy authors who push the line of social issues and controversies that often get pushed under the rug, look toward Keech and his latest novel, Doc Doc Zeus: A Novel of White Coat Crime [Real Nice Books, August 1, 2017].
Dr. Hardwicke Zeus is a successful physician, who cheats on his wife, degrades his mistress, stiffs his medical partners and defrauds insurance companies. Most problematic of all is his deep-seated misogyny, which he takes out on his female patients. The medical board knows he drugged and raped Katherine two years before, but is helpless to do anything about it. His current victim is sixteen-year-old Diane. Diane is intelligent and strong-willed, but she is also an unwed mother who at fourteen has given her baby away for adoption, has lost faith in her church, and is having trouble reconnecting with her only two friends. Even as she cherishes her relationship with Dr. Zeus, Diane resists some of his sexual demands and finds it necessary as a matter of survival to lie to him about taking the drugs he prescribes for her. With a little help from a new friend, she gradually figures out that she is being used, and what to do about it.
“The Stories investigators hear are often very similar. A woman might feel the doctor performing a slightly more intrusive examination than usual, but the last thing in the world she wants to do is question the doctor closely about that,” contributes Keech. “If she goes back maybe six months later and it happens again, it’s obvious the first time wasn’t just a slip-up. But It’s just human nature to try to put something like that out of your mind. If it happens a third time, the patients are often so disgusted they just want to get out of there and never think about it again. Sometimes they blame themselves for not realizing what the doctor was doing.”
Doc Doc Zeus portrays very real, emotional encounters that can actually happen to any patient against their will. It shows readers how medical boards go about trying to help these victims. Keech hopes to prevent more of these degrading assaults from happening to people who may be unaware of the abuse.
- The sinister nature of this crime which causes victims often to blame themselves for what was done to them
- The untold story of the causes of and cures for physician predation on patients
- Preventing guilt and shame of victims being sexually abused by a predator physician under the guise of medical treatment
- Opioid abuse by both physician and patient
- The importance of reporting abuse – even when its under the guise of love – once your mind is clear so others will not be subjected to the same treatment
“Physician sexual predation is a unique crime in that the more lengthy and abusive it is, the less likely the victim is to report it,” adds Keech. “ I don't think any other novel has attempted to portray the insidious psychological twist by which the victims themselves often begin to feel at fault.”
THOMAS KEECH is a retired Assistant Attorney General for the state of Maryland having represented the State Board of Physicians for sixteen years in its attempt to discipline doctors who were sexual predators, perpetrators of insurance fraud, violators of self-referral laws, and many other types of misbehavior. Prior to this, he served for thirteen years as the Chairman of a state administrative appeals board. Before that, he was an attorney and lobbyist for the Legal Aid Bureau of Baltimore for seven years.
Currently, Keech is a contractual consultant to the Maryland State Board of Physicians, where he write regulations, coordinates with other boards and agencies, and participates in investigations.
He also authored Unemployment Insurance [Maryland Institute for Continuing Professional Education of Lawyers, 1991], As well as the novels The Crawlspace Conspiracy [Baskerville, 1995], Prey for Love [Real Nice Books, 2011], and Hot Box in the Pizza District [Real Nice Books, 2015]. The novels dealt with state politics, teenagers entangled in suburban corruption and college romance, respectively.
Learn more about Thomas Keech on www.realnicebooks.com or by connecting with him on Facebook or Goodreads.
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