Author: John Bishop, MD

Publisher: Mantid Press
ISBN: 978-1-7342511-0-4

Doctor Bishop, author ofAct Of Murder, is a seasoned doctor or orthopedic surgery in Houston, Texas. (2020, inside back cover) His other passions run from playing blues piano to golf. He and his wife live in the Texas Hill Country.


Act of Murder is part of Doctor Bishop’s Doc Brady murder mystery series. In this thriller Doc Brady seems to have an inordinate number of deaths everywhere he looks from neighbor’s children to partners and people he does not even know, but all appear to be somewhat suspicious. As Doc Brady contemplates this scenario his wife insists that their son and his buddy can assist in the discovery of facts or missing information.

The police think rule the hit and run as murder since the young boy died. They are slim on resources and Doc Brady says he will help if he can. The more JJ Brady and his college roommate dig the deeper the hole. So many things simply do not add up. 

The child who died in the hit and run had a serious bone disease that is not very prevalent amongst the people of the world, but he was leading a somewhat normal life until the untimely accident took his life. 

In the morgue Doc Brady finds a dead ringer for the young boy who was slain. He cannot quit thinking how alike these two young boys are. He calls in some favors from the ME who verifies that they share the same DNA and are indeed fraternal twins. Strange just takes a turn for stranger. 

The roommate of JJ is tied to the young boy who is a dead ringer for the young boy killed on Doc Brady’s street. Coincidence? Then the ostentatious aunt of JJ’s roommate comes to pick him up from Doc Brady’s house tossing another wrench into the tool pile. 

The leads are beginning to look like an unsolvable puzzle until Doc Brady gets wind of what his son and friend come up with in their research. They present this information to JJ’s mother who passes it along to Doc Brady. Some things begin to make sense while others are still afield. Doc Brady cannot let it rest. He must solve this puzzle and learn the truth. 

Can he find the person responsible for the death of his neighbor’s son? How does the other dead boy in the morgue tie into this scenario? 

As if that is not enough, the managing partner of Doc Brady’s entire practice comes up with Cancer and dies suddenly after surgery. Too many loose ends. Are these deaths connected? If so, how?

I enjoyed reading this book and learned a lot about orthopedics along the way. If you are looking for a nice Christmas or Holiday read perhaps this is one you should select. It is a page turner.