Trading in the scalpel for the pen, UF College of Medicine alum Barbara Harty-Golder, MD ’77, has published her first novel in a series of murder mysteries.

Her book, “Dying for Revenge,” is the first of The Lady Doc Murder series and was published this year through Full Quiver Publishing of Ontario.

“Dying for Revenge” follows medical examiner Jane Wallace as she searches for answers concerning the murders of Telluride’s rich and famous.

“It’s a fairly conventional murder mystery on the surface. There is a deeper story in that the woman is a medical examiner who lost her own husband to murder. She ultimately discovers she and the murderer have some things in common she’d rather not have in common with a killer,” said Harty-Golder from her home in Lookout Mountain, Tennessee. “It’s a woman’s journey from revenge through justice to mercy.”

She said readers may discover something about themselves after finishing the book.

“I think of the murder mystery as the last, great morality tale,” she said. “Morality tales have the ability to show us something about ourselves that other forms of literature can’t.”

Harty-Golder received her residency training in pathology at UF and practiced hospital and community pathology before earning a law degree from Stetson University. She then practiced legal medicine, focusing on malpractice defense and risk management. She also served as the treasurer of the Florida Medical Association and the director of medical quality assurance for a large disability insurer before she switched gears again to write full time.

She said having a rich, varied professional history has made her nimble in the face of life’s changes.

“They say a book takes on a life of its own, and as a writer I had to be willing to take those turns,” she said. “My experiences in law and medicine prepared me for that.”

This story originally ran in the Winter 2017 issue of the Doctor Gator newsletter.