‘Do No Harm’ by the wonderful Jack Jordan is out in paperback today and I’m delighted to share my review again.
Author : Jack Jordan
Title : Do No Harm
Pages : 412
Publisher : Simon & Schuster
Publication date : May 26, 2022 (originally published)
| ABOUT THE BOOK |
My son has been taken. And I’ve been given a choice…
Kill a patient on the operating table. Or never see him again.
The man lies on the table in front of me.
As a surgeon, it’s my job to save him.
As a mother, I know I must kill him.
You might think that I’m a monster.
But there really is only one choice.
I must get away with murder.
Or I will never see my son again.
I’ve saved many lives.
Would you trust me with yours?
| MY THOUGHTS |
If you’re a nail-biter, I have bad news for you because ‘Do no Harm‘ is super tense from start to finish and you might not have any fingers left by the end of it.
Now, I don’t normally read medical thrillers or watch medical tv series. (Although I did make an exception for McSteamy.😏) Because the thing is, I suddenly turn into the world’s biggest hypochondriac and nobody needs that in their lives. But when one of your favourite authors decides to lead you down the medical path, what’s a girl to do?
Well … what a girl *should* have done is say “no, thank you” and move on instead of now finding herself possibly traumatised for life and desperately hoping she never needs surgery EVER!
Anna Jones is a cardiothoracic surgeon trying to balance her career with single motherhood, now that her husband has moved out of the family home. But things are about to get much, much worse for Anna. Her son has been kidnapped and he will only be returned if Anna kills a certain patient during surgery. To save her son, Anna must try to get away with murder.
That right there would be the thought-provoking bit. I’m not a mother but I’m assuming all the mums out there would choose to save their child over a stranger. (unless they’re the spawn of satan) Right? But Anna is obviously also a doctor. She took an oath. Do no harm. Her decision is a little harder to make. There are a multitude of consequences. What would you do? And then! Flip the scenario onto its side and imagine you’re a patient about to go under the knife of a surgeon who’s contemplating killing you! ON PURPOSE! *shudders to infinity*
‘Do No Harm‘ is told via the voices of three very different characters. There’s Anna, of course. Arrogant, condescending, extremely unlikeable, cold. I know I was supposed to feel sorry for her, for being put in this impossible situation, but she made it so hard. Like so many surgeons she seems to suffer from that God complex. Maybe they are even the best psychopaths in the making?
Also, Margot, who is Anna’s scrub nurse. Margot comes from a poor and miserable background. She’s tried for years to leave that part of her life behind and make something better of herself. But things haven’t been going her way and Margot is desperate. So very desperate. There is very little she won’t do to improve her circumstances. Again, I didn’t particularly like Margot but I’m not sure if I was meant to either. I did sometimes feel sorry for her, until she made another poor decision.
The third character is DI Rachel Conaty. She gets involved when a murder somehow seems to be connected to Anna. Poor Rachel’s life is being dominated by a horrible personal tragedy and she’s finding it extremely hard to keep her own personal demons away from this case. And I finally found a character to like and root for!
These three women will take you on one of the wildest rides you’ve ever been on. ‘Do No Harm‘ is a multi-layered, complex and fast-paced thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. There are a multitude of secrets and lies, of racing and chasing, of cat-and-mouse and a whole bunch of bad people. But also an incredibly cleverly added layer of depth provided by a central theme in the form of all things motherhood.
‘Do No Harm‘ is engrossing, compelling, addictive, somewhat scary but always exciting and tense. I flew through this one and that really hasn’t been happening much lately. I had no idea where this story would end up and there were one or two rather jaw-dropping shocking moments I wasn’t at all prepared for! Jack Jordan just keeps getting better and better and this latest offering is definitely his best one yet. I have no doubt there is more awesomeness to follow and I’ll be right here waiting for it.
| ABOUT THE AUTHOR |
Jack Jordan is the global number one bestselling author of Anything for Her (2015), My Girl (2016), A Woman Scorned (2018), Before Her Eyes (2018) and Night by Night (2019).
His latest thriller Do No Harm has been coined the thriller of the summer for 2022, described as “relentlessly tense” by Sunday Times Bestseller Lesley Kara, and “Chilling and perfectly paced” by New York Times Bestseller Sarah Pearse.
To find out more about Jack, enter numerous annual giveaways to win signed copies of his books, and be the first to hear of new book releases and news, follow him here:
Instagram: @JackJordan_author
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Twitter: @JackJordanBooks
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Novel Deelights 
Fab review! I definitely can’t wait to read this one… Then again, I tend to love his books in general.
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