The first novel in the Diagnosis: Murder franchise.
The local police chief has decided to create a task force, which includes Mark Sloan, to try and solve long-unsolved murder cases. Among the cases, one attracts Mark's attention: Lydia Yates. A Serial Killer known as The Reaper has 9 murders attributed to him, but he was only convicted for 6 (due to the fact that if he'll be executed anyway, no point in putting much effort to make one more conviction); Yates was one of the other 3. Mark notices that the Yates murder doesn't match the others; after seeing The Reaper in prison, he's convinced that The Reaper couldn't have murdered Yates. Finding 2 other serial killers, each with a single case not quite matching the respective MOs, he's convinced of some serial copycat murderer, who is eventually nicknamed The Silent Partner. Who is this killer?
At the same time, a dialysis patient, Stanley Tidewell, has decided to get a kidney transplant, despite the doctors saying he doesn't need it. The doner is his own son, Billy. Everything seems to be going fine, until Stanley dies at the end of the surgery. Why did he die?
It's up to Mark to answer these questions.
"The Silent Partner" displays symptoms of the following tropes:
- Abusive Parents: The Reaper had been locked up in a closet repeatedly by his mother. This both caused his claustrophobia and was the reason he became a Serial Killer of women.
- The Alibi: Mark insists that Serial Killer Tyler Cootes, couldn't have murdered Jerry Ridling, one of his supposed victims, because he had an alibi.
- Antagonist Title: One of the cases is trying to discover who the Silent Partner is, while he is trying not to be discovered.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: After Mark says that Lou Rozan is the Silent Partner, he goes to that person's house and finds the person dead from a self-inflicted gun-shot wound. Subverted, as Rozan turns out not to be the Silent Partner. The real Silent Partner had actually killed him.
- The Bus Came Back: The Tidewells payed to have a specific doctor fly over to do the transplant. The doctor is non other than Jack Stewart, a regular from the first 2 seasons of the TV series.
- Claustrophobia: The Reaper has this condition; consistent with this, he lived in a warehouse, worked in a job which kept him outdoors, and deposited the corpses of his victims in wide open spaces. Except Lydia Yates, which is what convinces Mark that The Reaper didn't kill her.
- Clear Their Name: Mark's effort to prove that the death of Stanley Tidewell wasn't the result of malpractice, either by Jack Stewart or by the hospital staff. It turns out to be murder by his son Billy.
- False Confession: Serial Killer Tyler Cootes confessed to many murders, including some he didn't commit. One of them was Jerry Ridling, a murder for which Mark discovers he had an alibi.
- Frivolous Lawsuit: Billy sues the hospital for his father dying from a penicillin allergy during surgery. However, the penicillin actually came from Billy's donated kidney, which Billy took intentionally in order to murder his father.
- He-Man Woman Hater: Due to his abusive mother, The Reaper became a Serial Killer of women.
- Inheritance Murder: When Stanley Tidewell refused to pay off Billy's debts, Billy murdered him to get his money.
- Never Suicide: Lou Rozan's death appears to be suicide due to having been discovered to be the Silent Partner. However, it wasn't suicide and he was not the Silent Partner.
- Revisiting the Cold Case: The purpose of the task force is precisely this. But not the case that ultimately attracts Mark's attention.
- Serial Killer: The Silent Partner committed many murders, each mimicking the MO of a different serial killer.
- Trapped by Gambling Debts: Billy Tidewell's gambling debts, and Stanley's refusal to pay them, is what drove Billy to murder Stanley.
- Weaponized Allergy: Billy murdered his father by taking advantage of Stanley's allergy to penicillin.
