A bold medical thriller that takes on the scourge of misinformation.
A no-nonsense doctor aims to bring down a deadly cult in Lee’s crime novel, the second in a series.
The most dangerous sickness does not infect the body, but the soul; Orange County hospitalist Dr. Mark Lin knows this better than most. One of his recently released patients, a pregnant woman named Shannon Dixon, was just killed in a suicide bombing at an OB-GYN clinic. While the public suspects anti-abortion activists are to blame for the attack, Lin—who was on the phone with his patient when the bomb went off—is struck by something he heard the bomber shout right before detonation: “Purity is mine!” When a new patient uses similar language to describe a strange healing group she’s recently joined (one that believes in mysterious powders and injections), Lin knows he needs to investigate. Path to Purity, as the secretive group is known, follows the teachings of a health guru called the Sun Priest, and not just anyone is allowed to join. Hoping to discover if the group was behind the bombing, Lin decides to infiltrate by posing as a sincere recruit, even if this requires him to pretend that he finds the Sun Priest’s pseudo-scientific treatments credible. As Lin proceeds down the Path, it soon becomes apparent that the group, which rails against doctors, vaccines, and “a medical-industrial complex,” is a cult working to isolate and brainwash its members. But what reason would Path to Purity have for murdering Shannon Dixon? As Lin digs deeper, he sees more people associated with the cult turn up dead from strange conditions or untreated illnesses. When the bloodshed escalates, Lin will have to decide if he’s bound by his oath to do no harm…or if the only way to deal with a death cult is to deal some death himself.
Lee’s prose, as narrated by Lin, is muscular and direct, whether the protagonist is explaining how to save a patient from a pulmonary embolism or swearing vengeance. “I now have one case of death by disinformation,” Lin fumes when a patient dies. “Not misinformation, incorrect info spreading with no intention to harm. Disinformation, with liars knowing they’re lying. Something tells me the Path to Purity knows their rituals don’t help. They must be stopped.” Lin, whose style of investigation is more James Bond than Sherlock Holmes, does not have much in the way of a bedside manner; indeed, some readers may find him an unpleasantly angry presence to accompany for nearly 400 pages. It’s clear that Lee knows his medicine, however, and the verisimilitude he brings to his depiction of the health and treatment of the characters (both at Lin’s hospital and in the teachings of the Path) do much to sell the reader on the reality of the doctor’s action-movie turn. The novel nods at the contemporary crisis of medical misinformation hocked by influencers, podcasters, and even politicians, and it is cathartic to see Lin take up the fight against the Sun Priest’s bunk science. Fans of the previous volume will undoubtedly enjoy this new adventure.
A bold medical thriller that takes on the scourge of misinformation.Pub Date: April 20, 2025
ISBN: 9798348330576
Page Count: 390
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 6, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Maybe not the most thrilling thriller, but the role of AI in coping with grief gives this novel pathos and interest.
A widowed and disgraced plastic surgeon is drawn into a Russian oligarch’s evil schemes.
Witherspoon’s adult fiction debut, co-authored with thrillermeister Coben, opens as heart surgery performed by Dr. Marc Adams in a North African refugee camp is interrupted by the explosive invasion of armed militants. It's the last we will see of Marc in this dimension. The next chapter jumps ahead one year to a ceremony at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore where his widow, Maggie McCabe, is supposed to be presenting an award in honor of her mother. Miserable and anxious about appearing in public after having lost her medical license, she consults with her late husband on her phone—not via supernatural means, but using a "griefbot," an amazingly lifelike and functional AI app created by her genius sister, Sharon. Once the griefbot coaxes her to brave the sneering masses, she learns she’s been replaced on the podium anyway. But she runs into a former professor, a celebrity plastic surgeon, who requests a meeting with her at his office in New York and won’t take no for an answer. Next thing she knows, there’s $10 million in her bank account and she’s on a private plane heading to a palace outside Moscow where she’s been engaged to perform off-the-record surgery on billionaire Oleg Ragoravich (new face) and his girlfriend, Nadia (new boobs). And…we’re off. A whirl of surgeries, chases, and escapes ensues as Maggie gradually comes to understand who these people are and what they have in mind for her, and how it connects to Marc and their missing friend and business partner, Trace Packer. She is aided by her delightful father-in-law, Porkchop, owner of a biker bar in New York City and a very handy guy to have on your team if you've run afoul of an international criminal organization. From the palace in Rublevka the action moves to Dubai and then Bordeaux, climaxing in a high-stakes illegal heart transplant. But wait—is Marc really dead? What happened to Trace? Who is Nadia really? Though these smoldering questions don’t quite catch fire, it's a good first try for Witherspoon.
Maybe not the most thrilling thriller, but the role of AI in coping with grief gives this novel pathos and interest.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9781538774700
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Fast-moving and disturbingly plausible.
Robots may be the future of warfare in this final father-son DeMille collaboration.
In Camp Hayden, Army Maj. Roger Ames is found dead, his skull crushed. Chief Warrant Officers Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor, special agents of the United States Army Criminal Investigation Division, are sent to the Mojave Desert, “a.k.a. in the middle of nowhere,” to investigate. In this fictional military installation, Army Rangers conduct field training exercises with lethal autonomous weapons. These “dangerous new toys,” nicknamed “tin men,” may become the future of warfare if they can be programmed to distinguish between friend and foe. Anyway, the Rangers’ job is to train the tin men, not the other way around. They are AI-driven robotic prototypes called D-17s, but even prototypes can kill. Did a bot kill the major? And was there criminal liability or intent, or was it a tragic accident? Brodie and Taylor discover that not everyone loves these beasts, and they must find out if humans are programming them for mischief or even trying to set up the program for failure. Meanwhile, the bots have nicknames. Bot number 20 is Bucky, seen on a video as a “seven-foot-tall titanium machine with hands covered in blood and brain matter” that has “a face but no eyes, with hands but no skin, with a body but no soul.” As scary as these beasties are, Brodie and Taylor must also look at the humans at Camp Hayden, because they learn that the “machines don’t have motives….They have inputs and outputs,” which naturally come from human programmers. They have neither brains nor courage nor honor; they do have brute force, speed, and agility. Obviously, plenty goes haywire in this enjoyable yarn. It feels a bit too believable for comfort, and that’s to the DeMilles’ credit as storytellers. Nelson DeMille had begun this project with his son Alex, who had to finish it alone after his father’s death.
Fast-moving and disturbingly plausible.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781501101878
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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