| The Past Tense | |
| Diagnosis Murder Novels, Book 05 | |
 | |
| Author | Lee Goldberg |
| Publish Date | February 1, 2005 |
| Publisher | Signet Books |
| Previous | The Waking Nightmare |
| Next | The Dead Letter |
Diagnosis Murder: The Past Tense is the fifth book of the Diagnosis Murder novels which act as TV tie in books for the series. This book is a prequel to Diagnosis Murder episode Voices Carry.
Synopsis[]
In Los Angeles, rain has made the area a flood stricken mud hole and when Dr. Mark Sloan walks along the beach he is shocked to find a dead woman in a mermaid's costume near his home. When he goes to work at Community General Hospital, his friend and medical examiner Dr Amanda Bentley tells him that the victim was injected with a drug to induce paralysis and in her stomach was a memory card.
When they get it developed, it is a picture of a storm that happened in 1962 forty-three years ago in the same month. The killer is sending Mark a message because that storm began the events that led to Mark solving his first homicide. Five student nurses were killed because they were involved in a blackmail scheme headed by a doctor who was also murdered. The woman who was killed turns out to be the daughter of a patient he treated the night it all began in 1962. Mark is determined to find the killer who seems to enjoy taunting him even if it means putting his own life in danger.