An energetic medical thriller that puts readers right into the action.
Benedict (Fatal Complications, 2015, etc.), a retired Pennsylvania anesthesiologist, offers a sequel medical thriller starring Luke Daulton, a practicing anesthesiologist based in Harrisburg.
Luke is a young, sleep-deprived doctor who’s trying to establish his career to provide for his wife, Kim, and their 2-year-old daughter, Abi. But although Luke would never admit it, he’s also suffering from PTSD, resulting from the events in the previous novel. Luke’s biggest current problem, however, is co-worker Brandt Stevens, an intensive care nurse who deliberately puts patients in danger in order to save them and be seen as a hero. Brandt, a technological whiz, is also training to become a nurse anesthesiologist. His girlfriend, nurse Kaycee, assists new surgeon Dr. Ramon Salazar in a difficult procedure, and Brandt sabotages their surgical robot. Later, his crimes escalate and he frames Luke for them, whom he blames for his own failures. Fortunately, Kim, a crack computer programmer, is helping Luke—but her involvement may put her and Abi in mortal danger. Benedict puts a lot of effort into the medical aspects of this thriller, particularly when detailing the important role that an anesthesiologist plays in any surgery; at one point, Luke says, “The bottom line…is the inescapable cold, hard fact that not breathing for three or four minutes produces death. No exceptions.” As a result, the scenes set in the OR are vivid and at times alarming. His characters are engaging but sometimes the behavior of the arrogant Salazar, the manipulative Kaycee, and the self-important Brandt feels over the top. Most believable is Kim, a stay-at-home mom on maternity leave who obviously misses the adult interactions of her professional career. Overall, this well-paced novel feels much shorter than its 350-plus pages.
An energetic medical thriller that puts readers right into the action.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-72872-751-6
Page Count: 380
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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