A textbook example of an unputdownable 'dilemma' thriller perfect for fans of The Chain and Falling, Jack Jordan's Do No Harm spins the tale of a surgeon blackmailed into murdering a patient in order to save the life of her son. In this exclusive piece, Jordan selects five great medical thrillers ranging across both crime fiction and sci-fi.
I have always thought there is something particularly hypnotising about medical thrillers. Perhaps it is due to our reliance on medicine and medical professionals in the modern world, and what it would mean for us all, should these ever be in jeopardy. After all, where would we be without the discovery of antibiotics, or advancements in medicine and surgical procedures, and exploration into deadly diseases to find cures? Or maybe it’s simpler than that, and it's the genre’s clear parallels of light and dark that draw us in, representing both the heroic preservation of life and the threatening destruction of it. The genre takes something we rely on, perhaps something we even take for granted, and flips the power dynamic in a whole new way.
When looking at surgery and medical professionals through a thriller lens, I couldn’t help but notice that the only thing keeping the vital relationship between doctor and patient intact is the patient’s trust: our trust in a surgeon’s oath, our trust in a doctor’s experience, our trust in a scientist’s moral compass. We trust these amazing professionals without ever knowing who they are beyond the white coat and the institution they represent. We trust them with our morality without a second thought.
This is exactly what I did when I had a minor medical procedure five years ago. It was only when I was wheeled towards the operating theatre and was about to be put under that I realised: I didn’t know anyone in the room. My heart raced for a few terrifying seconds, before the needle slipped in my vein and I quickly went to sleep. The procedure went well, and of course the surgical team were beyond kind and professional. But once I came round from the anaesthesia in the recovery room, I couldn't keep from scribbling down notes from my hospital bed, as I wondered to myself what might have happened had my surgeon’s intentions been that bit darker.
When we face a medical procedure, we consider the outcomes: the good, the bad. The survival rate or the potential complications we may face. When I was writing my medical thriller Do No Harm, I wanted to explore this by taking one step further and twisting the perspective: what if our fears are misplaced, and the entity we should fear isn’t the surgical procedure at all, but the surgeon holding the scalpel?
The books featured below explore the genre widely: some reveal what happens when that trust between medical professional and civilian is tampered with, while others have the medical professionals as the heroes, racing to save humanity as we know it. Whether it is speculative fiction you are after, a psychological suspense with a psychiatrist at the helm, or a full-blown serial killer thriller to draw you in, each book explores the medical genre in a brilliantly unique light.
A Between the Covers Book Club pick and The Sunday Times Book of the Year, Simon Stephenson’s medical thriller Sometimes People Die navigates the stark reality of our beloved NHS back in 1999 through a quick-witted, quintessentially British, and often enticingly dark lens: for amongst the overworked medical professionals, and underfunded wards of one struggling East London hospital, too many patients are dying… and it soon becomes clear that there is a serial killer within their midst.
What I love most about speculative fiction is its terrifying ability to show us a glimpse into the future, should we drift off course. If you want a medical thriller that explores the ethics of medical enhancements, Off Target is the book for you. As we follow the journey of protagonist Susan, who will do anything to protect her daughter in a perilous new world, Eve Smith explores the all-too-possible future of genetic engineering in humans, and the potentially disastrous effects of governmental greed for power.
The Surgeon is the very first thriller in the beloved Rizzoli & Isles crime series, which gripped readers around the world with the iconic lead characters and the terrifying surgical prowess of the serial killer they are hunting. In this novel, a dangerous killer is targeting lone women, torturing them in a way that leads the detective on the case to suspect they have a surgical training. The Surgeon is the novel that turned Tess Gerritsen into the literary star we know and love today.
Former Thriller of the Month author Alex Michaelides broke industry records with his debut novel The Silent Patient, which shot to the number one spot on the New York Times bestseller list and is currently in development for the silver screen with Brad Pitt’s production company at the helm.
The Silent Patient tells the story of psychiatric patient Alicia Berenson, who seemingly had the perfect life until one day she shot her husband in the head five times and never spoke again. It is up to forensic psychiatrist Theo Faber to get her to talk again and to discover what made her snap. Only Alicia knows what happens, and only Theo can make her speak, but if she does, will he be able to handle the truth?
It would feel incredibly wrong not to include Michael Crichton in this list. Before embarking on his writing career, Crichton received an M.D from Harvard Medical School, which led to him creating one of the most infamous and longest running medical shows, ER. Steering away from the genetically-grown dinosaurs we all know and love him for, and returning to his literary breakout hit: The Andromeda Strain tells the story of a group of scientists in a race against time to discover what extra-terrestrial life force is killing people before the mysterious, allusive pathogens spread and become an unstoppable. One might say Crichton was one of the founding fathers of the high-concept medical thriller, and if you’ve yet to read a Crichton novel, The Andromeda Strain is a great place to start.
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