When too many patients die under his watch, a troubled young doctor suspects murder. But are his instincts to be trusted?
Returning to practice after a suspension for stealing opioids, a young doctor takes the only job he can find: a post as a physician at the struggling St. Luke’s Hospital in east London. Amid the maelstrom of sick patients, overworked staff and underfunded wards, a more insidious secret soon declares itself: too many patients are dying. And a murderer may be lurking in plain sight.
Drawing on his experiences as a physician, Simon Stephenson takes readers into the dark heart of life as a hospitalist to ask the question: Who are the people we gift the power of life and death, and what does it do to them?
As beautifully written and witty as it is propulsive, Sometimes People Die is an unforgettable thriller that will haunt you long after you turn the last page.
My thoughts: this was really good. Drawing on the author’s own time as a junior doctor, though hopefully in a hospital without its own resident serial killer, this complex and clever murder mystery centres on a rundown London hospital and the staff and patients therein.
Our narrator, a down on his luck and quite frankly lucky to still be a doctor, addict and slightly inept human being, is only at St Luke’s because he has literally nowhere else to go. Escaping ignominy in Scotland he winds up mopping up east London’s best and brightest in A & E and Geriatrics. But after a series of suspicious deaths brings the Met police into his life, things spiral further from his control. Events take over and after a tragedy, he decides to solve the crime himself as the police have made a terrible mistake.
Funny, dark, intelligent and not completely farfetched, it reminded me of several hospital dramas (both on screen and in books) covering the realities of life in the NHS for junior doctors and just life in London really. A bit grotty and grubby but sometimes with those bits of gold old Dick Whittington was looking for shining through.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 