374 pages
You can buy The Operation...Here
You can follow Dylan Young...Here
- The Blurb...
When harrowing images of the kidnapped woman start to appear on his phone, along with a demand from her abductor that Jake confess to a crime he has no recollection of committing, he is forced to act or face terrifying consequences. He needs to delve into the past for answers. But time is running out for Katy. Will he admit to his failings and lose everything, or plead ignorance and let an innocent girl die?
- Our Review...
It also raises the lid on the more general murky world of medical ethics. Surgeons must learn their trade. Therefore there will be errors. Do we punish the surgeons for the errors? If we did there would be no more surgeons, so leniency is the order of the day. But what then of the bereaved families of medical collateral damage, do we explain their deaths as down to rookie errors? It's an ill wind that blows no one any good.
The plot itself focuses on Jake Thorn (now there's a protagonist's name if ever I saw one. No heroes are called Dave Smith are or Mike Jones are they?) A confident borderline over bearing Surgeon but deep down a nice guy. Trapped in a loveless relationship. A random colleague is kidnapped, the police are sniffing round him as he was the last person to see her alive. When out of the blue he starts to receive texts instructing him to confess to a case of criminal negligence from way back in his past. What is he going to do?
The author also focuses on the cesspit that is social media. The words witch-hunt and feeding frenzy spring to mind. You don't even have to be guilty of anything to be the victim of a world full of virtual schoolyard bullies.
The author does a nice line in two or three line hits that frame the issue at hand perfectly. see selected quotes for a few examples
The plot is entertaining and twisty enough to keep you nibbling away at the line, like a salmon nudging a fly. The reveal is well hidden and interesting. I wouldn't read it if I were about to go in for an operation mind you.
A good, solid, enticing medical thriller.
- Selected Quotes...
Crime is like medicine. Alcohol is a major contributor to workloads in both.'
She might even have been one of these kids who's had a boob job. Personally, I think it's criminal to even offer it at that age, but then I'm not raking it in as a plastic surgeon. Amazing what the filthy lucre does to ethics.
Now we have targets to meet. Budgets to not overspend. Drugs to invent and make profits from.
'The press is one thing. Social media and its power is something else altogether. Don't underestimate the great unwashed, Mr Thorn. To them, you are already a monster. McCarthyism is alive and well and hiding in the web.
We all, as surgeons and physicians, have our own horror stories to tell. Our secret drawer where we keep things buried. And any medic who tells you differently is a liar.
- If You Liked This Then You May Like...
(on the corruption of the medical profession prior to the War. Sad to see that in some ways we have not moved on, indeed it would appear that those times and issues are returnin)
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
review...Here
Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer
- About The Author...
I grew up in a mining village in South Wales. Left for university in London at 18 and a career in the NHS. I started writing seriously when I was about 33 and produced three dark psychological thrillers for Random House in the late nineties. Over the last decade and a half I’ve dabbled in children’s books and an adult contemporary fantasy series, only to turn back to crime. 3 DI Anne Gwynne novels followed with Bookouture. The Appointment and The Operation, standalone psychological thrillers are published by Bloodhound Books. Trauma was published in December 2020. I’m still practising medicine. (from Crime Cymru)
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