The death of the best ER nurse and good friend Gary Seligman causes Dr. Evelyn Sutcliffe to beat the bushes looking for why and who put the deadly mushrooms in her refrigerator. It seems that Gary was cooking the anniversary dinner for Evelyn and her “significant other,” psychiatrist Phil Carchiollo, and he ate some of the mushrooms that had been delivered in a gorgeous basket of veggies from a famous restaurant. But someone had added death to the basket.

When Gary dies, Evelyn feels not only grief for a very good friend but guilt. She could not decide if the mushrooms were meant for her or for Phil. One of Phil’s wacky patients, sort of, was intent on stalking the two of them, declaring that Phil was HER love, not Evelyn’s.

The cast of suspects gets larger with some odd assorted characters. Not only was Gary a good friend and colleague, but he used to be Evelyn’s brother’s lover. Afterwards, they were like brothers. Or were they? Add to the mix, the new lover, wealthy Vittorio von Laue, is in the hospital with a polo injury. It appears that not only the mushrooms killed Gary but some medical distortion is apparent.

An old boyfriend of Evelyn’s is on the Board of Directors at the hospital and things are not going well for him -- his law practice seems to be going bankrupt. There is some ill well between he and Gary, adding to the list of possible suspects.

Unnatural Causes contains too many suspects and when the murder is solved the perpetrator is someone almost obscure, seen in the beginning of the story, and not appearing many other times. In addition, neither the plot nor the characters is totally developed. It was confusing to figure out who everyone was and what their part was to be. Robinson’s other books were more suspenseful and satisfying.

--Kay Black