Doing Harm

December 16, 2013
With a deft initial setup reminiscent of Grisham’s The Firm, urologist Parsons’s strong first novel paints a picture of the competitive, ego-driven realm of a world-class teaching hospital and the kind of personalities that thrive there. Steve Mitchell, the chief surgical resident at a topflight Boston hospital, believes he has his life and career well in hand. Mitchell’s arrogance and pride may be justified, but they have primed him for a fall. This comes swiftly when a patient dies and Mitchell is blamed. A lovely and charismatic young medical student serving under him may not be all she seems. With the lives of his patients on the line, Mitchell is forced into a game of medical cat-and-mouse to stop a murderer and to reclaim his shattered life and reputation. The author’s attention to detail keeps the action chillingly plausible, until the climax when one too many twists sends this medical thriller skittering into silliness. Announced first printing of 100,000. Agent: Al Zuckerman, Writers House.

November 1, 2013
Parsons, a surgeon, writes a convincing thriller about a med student who's a bad apple and the evil game in which she engages at a major medical school and teaching hospital. Chief resident Steve Mitchell, a urology surgeon who is hoping to work at University Hospital once he finishes his residency, meets medical student Gigi, nicknamed "GG." Leggy and beautiful, GG is a quick student and brilliant, but she has one other notable characteristic--she's a psychopath. And she's decided to draw the happily married, although impossibly self-centered, Mitchell into her "game." GG ropes Mitchell into playing the game following a pair of disastrous surgeries that result in serious and unforeseen complications. Both times, Mitchell made grave errors, and patients were the ones to suffer. After sabotaging one of Mitchell's patients and then seducing the young doctor, GG lets Mitchell in on what is happening and tells him that unless he tries to figure out whom she is going to kill next, she'll proceed with her next victim. Distraught and unsure about how to stop GG, Steve confides in his junior resident, Luis, a former Marine who is both battle-wise and street-smart, and together, they decide to stop her. Parsons knows his subject and does justice to the medical side, although he needs to hold back a bit--telling all the details of a medical procedure and including inside physician jokes can be boring to civilians looking for nothing more than a great yarn. And his main character, Mitchell, can be pretentious and self-absorbed, particularly when he weighs the harm that knowledge of GG's future murders can do alongside his own personal disgrace. He proves to be a character that is almost as dislikable as the villain. Nicely paced action, but Parsons clumsily sidesteps the most obvious solution to the evil GG problem, vastly weakening the book.

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December 1, 2013
Chief resident Steve Mitchell is blessed with a perfect life: great kids, a lovely wife, and a chance to get the job of his dreams. Unfortunately, he is egotistical and sometimes puts his professional agenda ahead of his patients. Suddenly, everything begins to fall apart. One of his patients dies under strange circumstances, another is seriously injured during surgery, and a self-indulgent sexual encounter puts his marriage at risk. As Parsons' debut thriller unfolds, it becomes clear that events aren't entirely Steve's fault. There's a psychopath loose in the hospital, a very clever one who has murdered before and plans to kill again. It's a deadly gameand Steve has no choice but to play. If graphic medical detail (Parsons is a surgeon who specializes in urology) threatens to overwhelm the story, the novel certainly provides a dramatic view of hospital procedures in and out of the surgical suite. And once Steve finds out the identity of the ruthless killer, the pace picks up nicely, providing readers who like Robin Cook and Michael Palmer with incentive to add Parsons to their must-read lists.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

September 15, 2013

There's intense buzz, intense expectation, and intense publicity behind this debut thriller from board-certified urologist Parsons, whose protagonist is about to get his dream job at a Boston hospital when he botches a surgery and then loses a patient. He soon realizes that the patient's mysterious death was caused by a sociopath he even knows, but who will believe him now?

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2013

Steve Mitchell is riding high. He loves his work as a chief surgical resident at University Hospital in Boston, he's happily married with two daughters and wife, Sally, newly pregnant, and he's the prime candidate for a coveted faculty position at prestigious University Medical School. Then he makes mistakes, in and out of the operating room, leaving one patient dead, another dangerously declining, and both his career and marriage at risk. When Steve discovers that what is happening is no accident but a psychopathic plan to commit murder with which he's become involved, he confides in his junior resident, Luis Martinez, an ex-marine skilled in intelligence and secret ops, and draws on his own background as an undergrad lit major and accomplished computer hacker. VERDICT The descriptions of surgery and other hospital procedures by board-certified urologist Parsons may leave readers wary of going under the scalpel or even entering a hospital. However, as a medical thriller, this skillfully wrought debut gets high marks for building tension to a breathtaking climax. [See Prepub Alert, 8/19/13.]--Michele Leber, Arlington, VA

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 1, 2013

Steve Mitchell is riding high. He loves his work as a chief surgical resident at University Hospital in Boston, he's happily married with two daughters and wife, Sally, newly pregnant, and he's the prime candidate for a coveted faculty position at prestigious University Medical School. Then he makes mistakes, in and out of the operating room, leaving one patient dead, another dangerously declining, and both his career and marriage at risk. When Steve discovers that what is happening is no accident but a psychopathic plan to commit murder with which he's become involved, he confides in his junior resident, Luis Martinez, an ex-marine skilled in intelligence and secret ops, and draws on his own background as an undergrad lit major and accomplished computer hacker. VERDICT The descriptions of surgery and other hospital procedures by board-certified urologist Parsons may leave readers wary of going under the scalpel or even entering a hospital. However, as a medical thriller, this skillfully wrought debut gets high marks for building tension to a breathtaking climax. [See Prepub Alert, 8/19/13.]--Michele Leber, Arlington, VA

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.