A mysterious death. A baffling illness. And a case neither the police nor the Mayo Clinic could solve.

The Case of the Organic Chemist is the second medical mystery in the MacArthur Donne series, featuring Dr. MacArthur Donne, an Austin physician with a detective’s eye, and his flirtatious, humorous sidekick, Jack Robbie.

The story begins with MacArthur and Jack on a canoe trip down the Colorado River below the low-water bridge in Austin, Texas. There, love-’em-and-leave-’em Jack—whose romantic history includes a string of disappointed hospital ward clerks—meets Anna and, for once, finds himself completely mesmerized.

MacArthur, still struggling with the loneliness that followed the death of his wife, Jenny, reconnects with Rosamonde, the English woman he met in And If Thine Eye Offend Thee, beginning a new romantic adventure of his own in Austin.

Then the mystery begins.

MacArthur and Jack are asked to investigate the mysterious death of Louise Hoelscher, a PhD chemist at the University of Chicago who became suddenly ill after a romantic affair with a co-worker.

What caused Louise’s illness? How did she contract it? And why could no one determine what had happened?

The police could not solve the case. Neither could the Mayo Clinic.

After Louise’s death, her husband is left with one question he cannot put aside: What really happened to his wife?

He turns to Dr. MacArthur Donne.

What follows is a medical mystery filled with suspense, medicine, romance, and the evolving partnership between MacArthur and Jack—a relationship reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, but with its own distinctly Texas personality.

“Sherlock Holmes Goes to Texas.”

The Case of the Organic Chemist
Book 2 in the MacArthur Donne Mystery Series