DR. KNOX is a good one. Let’s start with the cover. What a concept: a book jacket that balances between drawing a prospective reader in and actually telling the reader something about the book. The cover to Peter Spiegelman’s latest work features a skull and stethoscope and a couple of other things. One gets an idea almost immediately what it is and isn’t about. To truly appreciate what happens between that cover and the rear binding, you have to read the book, which you absolutely should do. The Dr. Knox of the title is one of the most interesting characters you are likely to meet this year.

Dr. Adam Knox is a kind of Ray Donovanof the ghetto, only he’s Donovan with a medical degree and without the penchant for mayhem. Where the similarity begins for both men is their ability to use their respective skills to solve problems. Knox, the latest in a long line of distinguished Connecticut physicians, is not “distinguished” as that word is conventionally used, but he is certainly admirable. By day, Knox runs a medical clinic in one of the worst sections of Los Angeles, bringing the skills he honed as a physician with the NGO in the Central African Republic to bear in what is basically a domestic war zone, in a medical and literal sense.

"The Dr. Knox of the title is one of the most interesting characters you are likely to meet this year.... Hopefully Spiegelman will see fit to bring Knox and Sutter back for another appearance."

A great deal of the attraction of DR. KNOX is the amount of research that Spiegelman obviously invested in writing this book, particularly with respect to treating conditions requiring much more than “take two aspirin and call me in the morning” with limited resources on every level and an emergency room urgency. The amount of financial compensation that Knox recovers from his clinic work is not barely enough for him to keep body, soul, staffing and clinic together. He accordingly supplements his resources by functioning as a clandestine doctor to the stars, if you will: If one requires off-the-books medical treatment with a healthy dose of discretion and has the cash to afford it, Knox is the guy to see. His conduit for this shadowy patient practice is a gentleman named Ben Sutter, whose somewhat unlikely friendship with Knox keeps the clinic, and Knox, going. Sutter in his way is just as interesting (and yes, maybe even more so) as Knox, being highly successful in the real estate business and other areas of endeavor, some of which tread a fine line of legality.

The major plot thread running through DR. KNOX arises early on in the book. As the clinic is getting ready to close after a normal day of chaos, a woman brings in a young boy who has had a severe allergic reaction. Knox and his staff have barely treated him when they realize that the woman, who appears to be his mother, has left. It becomes clear after a review of the clinic’s exterior security that a couple of shady and dangerous characters were looking for them. Knox knows that he should probably turn the boy over to Children’s Services, but feels that the mother obviously intended to entrust her child to them until such time as she could retrieve him.

Is this an unlikely scenario? Maybe, but Spiegelman gently nudges the reader into believing it. This, of course, gets Knox into trouble, particularly with the major league bad guys who are looking for the mother/son pair. Knox soon discovers that another party is trying to track down the boy, someone who represents an even bigger threat to him and everything he is working for. He could make most or all of his problems go away just by surrendering the child, but he won’t. Sutter, of course, is there to help, but even he may be out of his league as the net and the noose around Knox grow tighter, until all he has left is one last, desperate move.

DR. KNOX is almost perfect. I say “almost” because the political element that Spiegelman interjects into the book requires more of a suspension of disbelief than I had hoped for. This is a character-driven novel, however, and the concept of a guy like Knox fighting the good fight in a medically underserved area makes one hope that someone like that is really out there, in the same way that one wants a Scot Harvath, Dewey Andreas or Jack Bauer standing ready in the night. Hopefully Spiegelman will see fit to bring Knox and Sutter back for another appearance.