Did you know that the phrase “first do no harm” is not technically part of the Hippocratic Oath? And while this verbiage may be in the spirit of a doctor’s duty to treat and protect their patients, results may vary; news stories of medical malpractice seem more and more common with the internet at our fingertips.
So is it really any wonder that medical thrillers grip us? In the charged atmosphere of a hospital operating theater, the difference between necessary medical intervention and irreparable harm is balanced on a scalpel’s blade — with one cut, things could go either way. it’s the perfect setting for a thriller that asks, what if things went too far? What if even the best of intentions for medical advancement came at too high a price?
These six books pull apart discussions of technology, morality and the possibility that even in trying to develop new treatments for our fellow humans, we run the risk of losing our own humanity.
Host by Robin Cook
Fourth-year medical student Lynn Peirce is desperate for answers when what started out as a routine surgery has sent her boyfriend into a coma. She’s devastated when the MRI confirms him to be brain dead, and she’s sure that there’s more to the story. Enlisting the help of her lab partner, Peirce scrutinizes every aspect of his treatment. She soon discovers that local Middleton Healthcare hospitals have a disturbing pattern of losing patients to unexplained illnesses and complications — and all these hospitals are associated with by the same international company, which just happens to be making a killing off a radical new protein agent. That protein agent needs to be incubated, and Peirce suspects she knows exactly who is being used as the unwilling hosts for production — but when she and her lab partner start receiving death threats, Peirce realizes that she’s stumbled into a coverup that Middleton Healthcare are willing to silence by any means necessary.
Curing Death by Mark Rosenberg M.D.
After an especially grueling day in the ER, Dr. Mike Royce can’t help but hope, however unrealistically, however desperately, if there could ever be a way to stop the inevitability of death. With the help of Alesha Simmons, his brilliant nurse partner (and sometimes more than that), he soon launches a controversial new study that seeks to stop death in its tracks by any means necessary. Amid obstacles, roadblocks and harsh criticism from other medical personnel, Royce and his colleagues soon make a breakthrough; they’ve found a previously undiscovered source of energy in the bodies of dying patients. Royce thinks that finding a way to stop the soul’s energy from leaving the body will prolong the patients’ lives — but what cost comes with playing God? And why is Royce being plagued with strange bouts of memory loss and disturbing dreams that haunt him even in his waking hours? As thought-provoking as it is gripping, Curing Death asks us to consider when certain matters of life and death are better left alone.
Check out our full review of Curing Death here.
Lakewood: A Novel by Megan Giddings
Unlike the previous two entries in this list, this stunning debut is not from the perspective of a medical professional, but the one receiving the medical treatment. Lena Johnson is a Black millennial who’s just dropped out of college to support her family after her grandmother’s death revealed the family’s dire financial straits. Her saving grace is a job in the mysterious town of Lakewood, Michigan — a job that pays well, and even provides her with a place to live. The only stipulation is that Johnson can’t tell her friends and family about the studies she’s participating in — even as the studies begin to take their toll. But it’ll be worth it, according to the authorities at Lakewood. The studies have the potential to change the world, as long as the studies’ subjects learn to endure. Described as “part The Handmaid’s Tale, part The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” this novel harkens to the grim history of human experimentation on Black people in the name of medical discovery.
Coded to Kill by Marschall Runge M.D.
After years of honing their product, Drexel Hospital is about to release the Electronic Health Records — the EHR, for short. This groundbreaking technology uses state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and machine learning advances to “quickly and accurately diagnose every human malady”, promising to revolutionize healthcare. And for former surveillance agent Hugh Torrence, the EHR is the perfect weapon with which to wield absolute, unchecked power. Only a handful of employees at Drexel Hospital stand in his way as they begin to question whether the EHR is truly as infallible as they’ve been told.
When Dr. Mason Fischer loses two patients to faulty input from the program, he seeks the help of Drexel’s IT wunderkind, RT, as well as his girlfriend, Dr. Carrie Mumsford, an internal medicine resident and daughter of the hospital CEO. Soon, the three come upon more evidence that the wonder of the EHR is not all as it seems. But as they dive deeper into the conspiracy, they also work themselves deeper into Torrence’s web — and he’s not about to go down easy.
Read our full review of Coded to Kill here.
Adverse Effects by Joel Shulkin
Boston psychiatrist Cristina Silva is desperate for results. She’s been prescribing her amnesiac patients the revolutionary new memory-recovery drug in trials, Recognate — and secretly taking it herself, to try and recover her own memories. All seems to be going well for both her and her patients, until one seemingly successful case jumps to his death. Shortly after, Silva begins to receive her memories in violent, vivid flashes, accompanied by an incessant voice in her head. She’s soon faced with a choice — stop taking the possibly unsafe drug and lose all her memories, or continue taking it and risk facing unknown consequences? The conundrum only gets worse when a man shows up at her bus stop, seeming to know more about Silva’s life than she does, and claims Silva is hiding information that puts a target on her back. To save her own life, Silva must continue taking the medicine and discover the memories that will secure her safety — even as the adverse effects of the medicine threaten to tear her apart.
The First Harm by Steven Piskula
First-year medical student Tanna Christensen has been anticipating her first gross anatomy dissection for ages, but nothing in her textbooks could have prepared her for what she discovers; disturbing genetic abnormalities riddling the cadaver, ones that paint an unsettling picture for the bodies housed at the medical lab’s mortuary. Then her roommate dies in what appears to be a freak accident — but Christensen has her own suspicions. She soon stumbles upon a massive underground body-trading scheme between the school and a shady research laboratory, Modern Genetics, that specializes in the kind of abnormalities that were found in the cadavers. But as soon as she’s pieced together the terrifying revelation, it’s clear that Christensen’s learned too much — and she has to fight to outrun those who would rather have her permanently out of the picture. Invoking stories of 18th century body snatchers selling cadavers to medical schools, The First Harm brings those tales into the modern age — and the results are nothing short of terrifying.
Interested in more medical thrillers? Here are some other titles that we think are similar to The First Harm.
