Detroit Heroic
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Stephanie.Wallace@finnpartners.com Adrienne.Allen@finnpartners.com
Nephrologist’s Gritty Debut Novel Detroit Heroic
Detailing the Turbulent 1967 Rebellion
DETROIT — Heliotrope Books is proud to announce the upcoming release of Detroit Heroic(September 2026), a gripping new novel by nephrologist Dr. Olaf Kroneman III. A raw, uncompromising look at the corrupt underbelly of Detroit and the chaos of the 1967 uprising, Detroit Heroic follows first-year medical intern Dr. Matt Drummond, who has avoided the Vietnam War draft only to find himself navigating an urban war zone at home.
Assigned to the city morgue to assist with forensic autopsies, Drummond uncovers the horrific close-range police executions of three unarmed teenagers at the infamous Algiers Motel. Alongside a fierce fellow intern, Brinn O’Reilly, Drummond is dragged into a dangerous web of rogue cops, illegal back-alley abortion rings, and a federal conspiracy surrounding the Tuskegee syphilis study.
Blending historical accuracy with intense medical drama, Kroneman weaves a powerful narrative about innocence, systemic prejudice, and what it truly means to be a healer in a broken world.
Born and raised in Detroit, Dr. Kroneman, can share his medical expertise along with his personal experience during those times including:
- How much of his own medical journey influenced his perspective on the flaws within healthcare.
- Why it was important for him to center the novel on the dark, pre-Roe reality of back-alley abortions and the institutional misogyny women faced then, and now.
- What parallels does he see between historical exploitation and modern healthcare disparities?
- How the medical industry, in a way, can forcibly uncover the truth behind racial injustice.
Dr. Olaf Kroneman III, MD, is a Board-certified nephrologist who’s practiced over 45 years in Detroit. He graduated with his medical degree from Michigan State University, completed his internship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, and his residency in internal medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Further specializing his training, he completed a clinical-research fellowship in nephrology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kroneman serves as a Medical Director at the Southeastern Michigan Kidney Center. In addition, Dr. Kroneman is an award-winning writer, seamlessly translating his lifetime of medical experience into deeply moving historical fiction. His work was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, won the Winning Writers Sports Fiction and Essay Contest and the Writer’s Digest short story contest. His essay “Detroit Golden Gloves” was selected as Editor’s Choice by inscape, honoring the top nonfiction piece.
Detroit Heroic byDr. Olaf Kroneman
September 2026 / $22.00 Paper / $9.99 E-BookISBN: 978-1-956474-93-0 (Paperback) / 978-1-956474-94-7 (E-Book
