Harvest

September 2, 1996
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Robin Cook is going to feel just swell after taking a look at Gerritsen's first novel. It's been 19 years since Cook published Coma as his own first novel, but that book's basic elements--as a tale of medical terror in which a feisty young female doctor in Boston foils a medical conspiracy involving the murdering of innocents to harvest their organs--are found in Gerritsen's novel as well. Along with the requisite amoral medical types goaded by greed, Gerritsen includes Russian mobsters, orphans at deadly risk, a ruthless industrialist, murders disguised as suicides, a bloody climax aboard a Russian freighter in Boston Harbor and some graphic surgical scenes. Surgical resident Abby DiMatteo is on the fast track at Boston's fictional Bayside Hospital. But after she disobeys orders so she can give a heart transplant to a failing 17-year-old instead of to a failing middle-aged, rich woman, her career options look slim. Fighting back against hospital administrators, shyster lawyers and violent thugs, Abby--spunky but angst-ridden and also rather whiny--finds major discrepancies in the records of Bayside's organ-transplant procedures. Shocked, she finally learns the truth, experiences a major betrayal and, in the climax, must herself face the final harvest. Gerritsen's crisp pacing and adept handling of the medical background--she's a retired internist--add sizzle to the tale, but her characters need life support, the climax is too drawn out and the final revelations will surprise only readers who move their lips. Major ad/promo; film rights sold to Paramount; simultaneous Simon & Schuster Audio; foreign rights sold in the U.K., Germany, Sweden, Holland, Finland, France, Korea, Denmark, Norway, Spain and Italy.

May 1, 1996
Gerritsen, the author of several romance tales (e.g., Thief of Hearts, Harlequin, 1995), has written a medical thriller that has her publicist ablaze with anticipation.

June 1, 1996
Gerritsen, a romance writer (e.g., Thief of Hearts, Harlequin, 1995) who will broaden her appeal with this thriller, tells a heart-stopping story of terror. While serving as a second-year surgical resident at Bayside Hospital, Abby DiMatteo meets 17-year-old Josh O'Day, who is desperately in need of a new heart. An accident victim with severe head trauma comes to Bayside and is a match. All systems are go, but at the last moment Nina Voss, beloved wife of zillionaire Victor Voss, arrives at the hospital for heart transplant surgery, and Josh goes back on hold--a clear violation of National Organ Registry policy. With the chief surgical resident, Abby engages in some fancy footwork, and Josh gets the heart after all. This is not pleasing to the Bayside cardiac team, the hospital bigwigs, and most of all Victor Voss, who begins a campaign to harass, discredit, terrorize, and ruin Abby. Nina Voss eventually gets another heart, but the organ's suspicious origins prompt Abbey to investigate, and the terror escalates to a truly surprising ending. This is a good spooker that will make for excellent summer reading. For most popular collections.--Dawn L. Anderson, North Richland Hills P.L., Tex.

July 1, 1996
Rarely does a woman look up from an operating table to see her fiancewielding a scalpel to harvest her liver for a transplant. Abby DiMatteo, second-year surgical resident at Boston's Bayside Hospital, has precisely that experience. The trouble starts when DiMatteo and her senior resident sidetrack a heart scheduled for the wife of a wealthy businessman and have it placed in a teenager. The businessman then launches a cruelly effective personal and professional campaign against DiMatteo. Meanwhile, the Russian mafia is carrying on an extremely profitable black market in human organs harvested from orphans who believe they are bound for adoption in the U.S. Detective Slug Katzka slowly comes around to DiMatteo's side and ultimately saves her from her lover's scalpel. Retired internist Gerritsen's first novel is a well-paced and smoothly written story that demonstrates she knows people as well as medicine. ((Reviewed July 1996))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1996, American Library Association.)