The Laws of Invisible Things — Frank Huyler

In this suspenseful and finely wrought first novel, a young doctor's encounter with a mysterious disease leads him to a crossroads between faith and reason

Not long into Michael Grant's first year in his new practice, a young girl in his care unexpectedly dies. He might not have been able to change that outcome, but he didn't do all in his power to prevent it, either. So when Michael is asked to take on the dead girl's father as a patient, he feels he must oblige the family's wishes. Examining the man, Michael notices an unusual pattern -- a white, serpentine spiral -- on the back of the throat and in his eye. But before a diagnosis can be made, the man is dead, the victim of a mysterious fire, and soon Michael himself is experiencing symptoms of the strange illness.

Believing that he has stumbled across a new disease but unable to convince his skeptical colleagues, Michael sets out to gather evidence. His quest takes him into a wilderness of disease, religion, and mystery, and becomes a journey that leads him to question not only his belief in the order of the world but his own place and purpose within it.

Lyrical, poetic, and utterly engrossing, The Laws of Invisible Things fully delivers on the promise of Frank Huyler's critically acclaimed collection of medical stories, The Blood of Strangers.