There was a time, not so terribly long ago, that medical thrillers were my book of choice. Having discovered Robin Cook, I devoured all of his work and then searched for any similar authors I could find. But, as is the case with too much of a good thing, I grew tired of this genre and moved on to different things. I’ve read maybe three medical thrillers in the past year and none of them have been very memorable. This book changed that in a big way.

Dr. Steve Mitchell’s life is as good as it gets. His medical career is on the fast track, and he’s in line for a position at the prestigious University Hospital in Boston. He has a wife he adores and two beautiful daughters. But then everything begins to spiral downward. Mistakes are made. Patients begin dying at an alarming rate. A sociopath is at work playing a dangerous game.

This was a good little medical story until about 40% in. It was humming nicely, if somewhat predictably, along. Lots of details about life as a resident, medical student, or intern as well as play by plays about what goes on in surgery and how easy it is for mistakes to be made. Still, I found myself wondering where the mystery/thriller part was. And then the bottom dropped out. In a big way. From that point on it was a mad dash to the finish for me.

Doing a Harm is an excellent debut novel by Kelly Parsons. While some aspects are slightly far-fetched, the medical details are highly believable as you would expect from an author who is also a doctor. With this novel, Parsons has renewed my interest in this genre. Five stars for me!

~Thalia

Buy it Now: Doing Harm