A taut, nuanced medical thriller.
In Wiggins’ novel, a renowned doctor in legal and professional trouble takes a job that calls his notions of bioethics and inheritance into question.
Dr. Bradley Baker is a highly successful Boston surgeon specializing in kidney transplants. His team has developed a game-changing medical advancement—a drug they’re confident that will extend the usefulness of a cadaverous kidney for transplant so that it’s equivalent to one from a living donor. Life has consisted of one success after another for Dr. Baker, and when Sam Kirby, a friend from his past, comes back into his life in need of a gifted kidney surgeon, Brad is all too happy to perform the operation. These procedures are a breeze for Brad—and for the reader, too, as the operating-room scenes are tense and authentic, and informative without being dry: “Time, space, and even Brad’s sense of self disappeared when he was in sync with his work and team….” After Sam’s new kidney begins to “pink up,” Brad leaves the less-demanding post-op work to his junior colleagues. While he’s away from the hospital, Sam suddenly dies from a heart attack. Brad is despondent and his confidence is shaken. Then Sam’s wife, Faye Kirby, sues the hospital, and Brad’s career is thrown into jeopardy. When his boss insists Brad take some time off, the prospect of a year without any salary—while his daughter starts at an expensive university and his wife expects a healthy donation to her charitable work—makes him reconsider a mysterious job offer he's just received during a conference in Mexico.
He’s been specially recruited to lead a team of surgeons working at a state-of-the-art transplant center deep in the heart of the Mexican jungle. It’s a mysterious proposition: The center’s inner workings are secretive, run by a well-dressed man with astoundingly deep pockets, and the accommodations—as well as the compensation—seem too good to be true. As the screws tighten on his professional life back home, Brad capitulates and takes the offer. The new job is exciting at first—readers get to luxuriate, along with the doctor, in his sleek new surroundings, and his custom greenhouse filled with exotic, rare flora—but it soon becomes clear just who Dr. Baker has mixed himself up with, and why the center’s workings have been kept hidden. From there, the narrative becomes even more compelling, and readers will enjoy finding out who does what to whom. Even before this point, though, the work has much to offer. Dr. Baker is a complicated figure, and the delicacy with which he navigates choppy waters both at his old hospital in Boston and his new posting in Mexico helps elevate the novel from run-of-the-mill thriller to something more thoughtful and, in the end, more satisfying. Some characters are types whom readers may recognize—the wealthy, golden-hearted mystery man whose wealth, it turns out, comes from shady dealings, or the no-nonsense cool-under-pressure nurse—but they are drawn so deftly as to feel real.
A taut, nuanced medical thriller.Pub Date: Dec. 16, 2023
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 339
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.
What hasn’t legendary legal eagle Grisham tried yet? How about a thriller about serial kidnapping and international terrorism.
When Paul and Chelsea Tanner disappear during a day trip on their Paris honeymoon, their abductors demand a ransom of $2 million from Chelsea’s wealthy parents, and a few days later the same sum from Paul’s much less well-heeled parents. After orthopedist Lowell Clayburn, Chelsea’s father, ponies up the ransom without breathing a word to the authorities, his daughter is promptly released. But even though Paul’s parents sell their home, liquidate their assets, and borrow money from the Clayburns to meet the kidnappers’ demands, the villains hold on to Paul anyway. Asked whether he’s ever seen such an outcome in a double kidnapping, FBI deputy director Andrew Strong tells Lowell: “No, this is a new one.” But it’s not, as Strong knows all too well; it’s the third such active case, all involving honeymooning couples whose bridegrooms had served in the armed forces. After masterfully drawing readers in with his bare-knuckle account of the Tanners’ abduction and the attempt by their families and the CIA to tell the lies required to keep caring friends and the rapacious press at bay, Grisham effortlessly switches gears to follow CIA agent Rae Claire Russo and Stuart Nash, a former Department of Justice prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay who agrees to marry her so they can serve as bait for the kidnappers, whose motives include justice and revenge as well as cold hard cash. So much for the imprisoned Paul’s wistful reflection that “hopefully, it was only about money.”
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780385550543
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2026
Starts with a bang and closes with a knockout punch of an ending.
A violent attack hijacks a woman’s memory in this novel of domestic suspense.
McFadden wastes no time pulling the trigger in this harrowing story that starts with gunfire then swiftly propels readers into a crack tale of secrets and misdirection. Originally self-published in 2016, the book carries the same formidable weight as McFadden’s later novels featuring unsuspecting women who lose their power then fight to recapture it—mostly from men who have betrayed them. That formula perfectly fits Dr. Charlotte McKenna, a 37-year-old dermatologist who isn’t looking for love until the most handsome man she’s ever seen begins to woo her. There are warning signs about Clark Douglas and Charlotte overlooks them to her detriment—but is he a killer? The novel has dual timelines split between events leading up to the day Charlotte barely survives a head wound meant to kill her and the months afterward, when she struggles to reclaim her memory and her mobility. In real life, McFadden is a physician trained to treat brain injuries. Her expertise gives Charlotte’s rehabilitation authenticity, and her writing talent makes it interesting and engaging. As good as that timeline is, readers will yearn to get back to the alternate timeline about who wants Charlotte dead. It’s only a matter of time before Charlotte starts to remember who tried to kill her, and the clock is ticking toward their next attempt. McFadden dishes up plenty of suspects: Charlotte’s secretive husband, Clark; a former patient turned stalker who confronts Charlotte on her honeymoon; and the angry husband of a patient who blames Charlotte for his wife leaving him. Though the story is delicious and dark, McFadden brightens things up with a possible love interest for Charlotte and a surprise ending sure to please the author’s many fans.
Starts with a bang and closes with a knockout punch of an ending.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249617
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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