medical thriller

Audiobook Review: A Cure for Deceit by Margie Miklas

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Author: Margie Miklas
Narrator: Blair Seibert
Length: 7 hours 16 minutes
Publisher: Margie Miklas⎮2021
Genre: Medical Thriller
Release date: Apr. 28, 2021

What happens when a top surgeon begins to crack under the strain of his personal life and patients start to die? A sudden spike in patient deaths drives an impassioned ICU nurse to launch a clandestine investigation, targeting a powerful cardiac surgeon whose corrupt connections could destroy her career.

Allison Jamison, an experienced intensive care nurse, becomes suspicious when a recent wave of major surgical complications results in unnecessary patient deaths. She enlists the professional expertise of her friend, Detective Mark Derning, whose interests include more than an investigative role. When her probe targets Dr. Gary Tamarino, the powerful, narcissistic chief of cardiothoracic surgery at San Francisco Bay Hospital, she encounters a staggering level of deceit and revenge while delving deep into his far-reaching web of corruption.

Abuse of power, manipulation, callousness, and desperation drive the dark side of a man who also saves lives on a daily basis. Will he destroy her career before she can do anything to stop him?

Buy Links

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My Review

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Margie Miklas. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

A Cure for Deceit is a medical thriller about Allison, an ICU nurse, works with a great heart surgeon who suddenly has patients with complications who have return to the OR for a second surgery. Critical Cover Up, a medical malpractice investigative agency that Allison started, is contacted to investigate the surgeon. Suddenly, it seems that the surgeon’s life is falling apart, and he blames Allison. I was afraid he was desperate enough to come after her!

Although the thriller part of this book is minimal, it’s an interesting story. There’s so much going on, it’s difficult to stop listening once you start. There’s even a sweet romance between Allison and the detective helping her investigate.

The narrator has a good voice for this story and does well with the different voices as well as the pacing. She helped the story to come alive, although it was well-written. I may have to go back and read the previous book!

About the Author: Margie Miklas

An award-winning author, Margie Miklas writes medical thrillers and travel memoirs about Italy. Creator and owner of the travel blog, Margie in Italy, and a contributing writer for an Italian-American newspaper, she is a member of the Florida Writers Association and makes her home in Florida.

In her medical thrillers, Margie’s years of experience as a critical care nurse provide the foundation for the realistic storylines inside a hospital. Her characteristic conversational, storytelling approach in her travel memoirs makes readers feel as if they are traveling beside her.

Margie has won numerous awards, including two from the Florida Writers Association, Readers Favorite, and Book Excellence awards. A Cure for Deceit won the Silver Award in the thriller genre in the 2020 Royal Palm Literary Competition from the Florida Writers Association, along with the Bronze Award in the 2020 Reader’s Favorite Competition in the thriller category.

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About the Narrator: Blair Seibert

Blair is a full-time voice actor living in Los Angeles, CA with 20+ previous years’ experience as a green building architect. That experience draws her to books that offer the listener new knowledge about things of interest to her: relationships, women’s issues, medicine, psychology, and environmental issues, while also being entertained. 

Blair recently completed a ten-hour non-fiction book for Penguin Random House called “New Women In The Old West”. Genres she narrates are: romance, Rom-Com, cozy mystery and non-fiction.

When Blair is not narrating, she’s gardening, cooking, recycling, biking or quilting (the skill she learned during the COVID shutdown). She’s passionate about books and is typically listening to one fiction and one non-fiction at a time while also reading a non-fiction book. 

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Tour Schedule

Click here to view the full tour schedule!

Audiobook Review & Giveaway: The Curing Begins (Condition Book 2) by Alec Birri

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Author: Alec Birri

Narrator: Jonathan Keeble

Length: 6 hours 39 minutes

Publisher: Essential Music Limited⎮2018

Genre: Science Fiction

Series: The Condition Trilogy, Book 2

Release date: Jan. 17, 2018

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The second in a dystopian trilogy based on the author’s command of a top secret government unit.

Discovering an infamous Nazi doctor conducted abortions in Argentina after the Second World War may not come as a surprise, but why was the twisted eugenicist not only allowed to continue his evil experiments but encouraged to do so? And what has that got to do with a respected neurologist in 2027? Surely, the invention of a cure for nearly all the world’s ailments can’t possibly have its roots buried in the horrors of Auschwitz?

The unacceptable is about to become the disturbingly bizarre. What has the treatment’s “correction” of pedophiles got to do with the president of the United States, the pope, and even the UK’s Green Party?

As if the Condition trilogy wasn’t unsettling enough….

 

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Alec Birri served thirty years with the UK Armed Forces. He commanded an operational unit that experimented in new military capabilities classified at the highest level (Top Secret Strap 3) and it is this that forms the basis of his novels. Although semi-autobiographical, for national security and personal liberty reasons, the events and individuals portrayed have to be fiction but are still nonetheless in keeping with his experiences.

Website⎮Twitter⎮Facebook

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Narrator Bio

If you regularly enjoy listening to audiobooks then this Shakespearean actor will need no introduction. Winner of a 2016 SOVAS award, Jonathan’s voice is rightly recognized as being one of the best, and his narration of The Condition Trilogy is no exception.

LinkedIn⎮IMDB

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I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Alec Birri. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

This second book in the trilogy starts with a detective in Argentina who is sent to a village to dispose of evidence of experiments done by an ex-Nazi doctor. He can’t believe the atrocities he finds in the village or the fact that the government wants to cover it up. He decides to track down the doctor to get answers. I didn’t know what this first half had to do with the first book, but I was eventually enlightened.

The second half of book 2 takes place in 2027, and doctors continue to work on a new treatment to cure all of the world’s physical and mental ailments. AIs are also becoming common. With so many improvements so fast, what will happen? How far is too far when it comes to improving and lengthening our lives?

The narrator did a good job with timing and pacing as well as the different voices.

There are a couple surprises and I can’t wait to listen to book 3 to find out what happens. This book could be read as a stand-alone but I recommend reading the first book to get the full appreciation of what occurs in book 2.

Continue reading →

Audiobook Review & Giveaway: A Medical Miracle? (Condition Book One) by Alec Birri

sleepygirl24 Comments

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Author: Alec Birri

Narrator: Jonathan Keeble

Length: 6 hours 32 minutes

Publisher: Essential Music Limited⎮2018

Genre: Medical Thriller

Series: The Condition Trilogy, Book 1

Release date: Jan. 17, 2018

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The first in a dystopian trilogy based on the author’s command of a top secret government unit.
What if all brain disorders were treatable? Few would lament the passing of dementia or autism, but what if the twisted mind of a sex offender or murderer could be cured too? Or how about a terrorist or maybe a political extremist? What if we could all be “corrected”?
It’s 1966, and RAF pilot Dan Stewart awakes from a coma following an aircraft accident into a world where nothing seems to make sense anymore. Not being able to recall the crash might be expected, but what about the rest of his life? And what’s stopping him from taking his medication? Is it brain damage that’s causing paranoia about the red pill, or is Dan right to think something sinister is going on?
His horrific injuries don’t make any sense either – a post-crash fire caused him to suffer almost 100% burns. How is it even possible to survive that? Are the hallucinations and strange dreams trying to tell him something? They are, and he’ll soon find out what, but not before his doctor’s sure the shock won’t kill him.

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Alec Birri served thirty years with the UK Armed Forces. He commanded an operational unit that experimented in new military capabilities classified at the highest level (Top Secret Strap 3) and it is this that forms the basis of his novels. Although semi-autobiographical, for national security and personal liberty reasons, the events and individuals portrayed have to be fiction but are still nonetheless in keeping with his experiences.

Website⎮Twitter⎮Facebook

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Narrator Bio

If you regularly enjoy listening to audiobooks then this Shakespearean actor will need no introduction. Winner of a 2016 SOVAS award, Jonathan’s voice is rightly recognized as being one of the best, and his narration of The Condition Trilogy is no exception.

LinkedIn⎮IMDB

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I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Alec Birri. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Dan woke up in a hospital and although he remembered being in an airplane crash, things didn’t make sense. I was as confused as Dan was because I learned things as he learned them. He could not figure out if the doctor was actually helping him or if he had an ulterior motive because it seemed that everyone was in the same state of recovery as him.

Condition Book One is good. It really kept my attention at the beginning but it got pretty slow in the middle. It seemed to take a little too long for Dan to figure things out, but it got a lot better at the end. Talk about twists! I’m looking forward to finding out what happens in Book Two. Continue reading →

Book Review: I Know a Secret by Tess Gerritsen

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New Release

Over the years, the Rizzoli and Isles series has sold millions of copies of books in print, won the acclaim of fans and critics alike, and was the basis for TNT’s long-running hit show which starred Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander. New York Times bestselling author Paula Hawkins says about I KNOW A SECRET: “Tess Gerritsen’s clever plotting and medical knowledge give her thrillers that extra edge. Expect a white-knuckle ride to very dark places.”

Available on Amazon

 

My Review

I chose to read this book after receiving a free e-copy. All opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased.

I enjoyed the Rizzoli and Isles show on TV but hadn’t had time to read the books so when one came up for tour, I was thrilled to read it. In I Know a Secret, someone is killing people and the symbolism is based on how martyred saints died. Not only is this a strange case but it takes some time for them to figure it out.

After some digging, Rizzoli and Frost figure out some things and they think they know who the killer is but do they? It just doesn’t sit well with Rizzoli. It didn’t sit well with me either. The killer was pretty predictable but it was still a good book.

It is kind of fun to read a book that I know the characters from a TV show. I usually like to read the book first but I like being able to picture the characters as they’re portrayed on TV. 

I liked I Know a Secret and I hope I can find the time to read all of the Rizzoli and Isles books.

 

About the Author

Internationally bestselling author Tess Gerritsen took an unusual route to a writing career. A graduate of Stanford University, Tess went on to medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was awarded her M.D.

While on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she began to write fiction. In 1987, her first novel was published. Call After Midnight, a romantic thriller, was followed by eight more romantic suspense novels. She also wrote a screenplay, “Adrift”, which aired as a 1993 CBS Movie of the Week starring Kate Jackson.

Tess’s first medical thriller, Harvest, was released in hardcover in 1996, and it marked her debut on the New York Times bestseller list. Her suspense novels since then have been: Life Support (1997), Bloodstream (1998), Gravity (1999), The Surgeon (2001), The Apprentice (2002), The Sinner (2003), Body Double (2004), Vanish (2005), The Mephisto Club (2006), and The Bone Garden (2007). Her books have been translated into 31 languages, and more than 15 million copies have been sold around the world.

As well as being a New York Times bestselling author, she has also been a #1 bestseller in both Germany and the UK. She has won both the Nero Wolfe Award (for Vanish) and the Rita Award (for The Surgeon.) Critics around the world have praised her novels as “Pulse-pounding fun” (Philadelphia Inquirer), “Scary and brilliant” (Toronto Globe and Mail), and “Polished, riveting prose” (Chicago Tribune). Publisher Weekly has dubbed her the “medical suspense queen”.

Now retired from medicine, she writes full time. She lives in Maine. 

 

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