(book review)

“That is exactly what I learned. That evil can be so ordinary.”

“Today they will find her body… Today they will know we are back.”

Being a surgeon is an incredibly difficult job, both morally and physically. These brave people in white coats and with a scalpel in a non-trembling hand are real heroes. We trust them with our lives. It is difficult to imagine that someone like that in medical gloves, a white coat, and a medical mask could turn out to be not a hero at all, but a cruel and fanatical serial killer. A killer who chases lonely, emotionally vulnerable women, breaks into their apartments and commits terrible tortures on them, not forgetting to kill them with a surgical scalpel in the end… After this book, you may have a few new phobias…

Just imagine: experiencing physical, sexual, and psychological violence, killing your torturer, carrying it all inside you for years, living in paranoia and fear. And then, finding out that the abuser is still alive and on the loose. This is the dramatic and enigmatic story of Catherine Cordell, an experienced surgeon who saved many lives, although her own life is in danger because the SURGEON is hunting her. Catherine is a very intelligent and strong person, a true professional in her field, but at the same time a frightened and vulnerable woman, whom you sympathize with from the first minutes. The vivid narrative style keeps you in suspense. There are dynamic and interesting plot twists. The characters are not ‘dead’ because they evoke strong emotions towards themselves — literally either strong sympathy or absolute hate. Also, it’s cool that you can learn something new, because there are certain historical references and a lot of medical terminology. This book is the first in the series, and it makes you want to read the others.

But not everything’s so perfect. This book is a detective thriller/novel, but in my opinion, only 60 percent of the criminal detective genre is here… A thriller — no doubt, but the detective is in question. The author successfully plays with the feelings and emotions of the characters and knows how to trigger and hook the reader. However, I was lacking the investigation itself. For me, the plot twists were quite predictable, so much so that I even figured out who the murderer was before the author even said it.

It also seems to me that at some point the author focused too much on the love line between the characters and the intensification of emotions. The romantic line seemed superfluous to me here. Although it’s possible that this is exactly why I wanted to read the book to the end, at least it wasn’t boring. And there is also a lot of medical terminology and details of the work of surgeons in the book. I think this is both an advantage and a disadvantage at the same time, because, on the one hand, it helps to dive into the atmosphere better and to understand the main character. But on the other hand, it’s still a detective story, so I’d rather like to learn more about how detectives and criminalists work here than surgeons and doctors.

My rating is solid 4/5.