The Todd Dossier

HOLLIS TODD is one of the richest men in the world, a flamboyant and dynamic multimillionaire who possesses everything in the world, except a good heart. With death imminent, he is flown to the country’s most prestigious heart transplant hospital, where shortly afterward the dying victim of an automobile accident is brought in. He is Tony Polanski, former Olympic track star already suffering a fatal disease—and the perfect donor. After his death, his heart is successfully transplanted to Todd, and so “the heart of one of the world’s great athletes beats on in the body of one of the world’s richest men.”
But to Dr. Charles Everett, a member of the surgery team, there is something too fortuitous about the circumstances. Against spirited opposition and stern warnings, he delves deeper and deeper into the case, eventually exposing a masterly conceived and executed plan to insure the longevity of Todd, the man who wants to stay alive more than anything in the world. His disclosure triggers a chain reaction that brings the story to a shattering climax. Emphasizing, throughout, the moral and ethical dilemmas posed by transplants, and at the same time combining good surgery (“Medicine is just another form of human endeavor, the good and the bad.”) with good mystery (“. . . he was a far better doctor than he was a detective.”), The Todd Dossier is a novel both topical and engrossing, entertaining and informative.