Published By: Boldwood
Pages: 262
Released On: 19/10/2025
Your life is in his hands… Exactly where he wants it.
When an eminent surgeon is arrested for murder, he knows he didn’t do it. He knows what it’s like to feel a person die on his operating table, but he didn’t inflict the wounds that ended the life of the girl they say he killed.
So, when the real perpetrator comes forward, and he is released, he feels vindicated.
What nobody knows – not the officer who arrested him, nor the influencer who petitioned for his freedom, nor the girl who escaped a killer years before – is that while he was incarcerated, he was making a plan.
Because revenge is sweet. But murder is sweeter…
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
It is written through the POV of about a dozen characters. This had the potential to be confusing but I think it was ok. It gives us completely different outlooks on what’s going on, rather than just giving us the thoughts of one character. On the other hand, was there too many viewpoints? I think so. Because it doesn’t give you that one character, you’ve got no-one to invest in. And it does mean there’s a lot of stories that have to be wrapped up well, and some characters pop up once and are never mentioned again.
I did enjoy it, and I would definitely recommend it but there was something nigging at me throughout it that I couldn’t quite pinpoint. But I think I’d describe it as being told rather than shown. I know everyone writes differently but the general rule is you show the reader what’s happening rather than tell them. Now I’m not saying it’s an easy thing to do, I appreciate that, but I think that was what was annoying me. There seemed to be a simplicity about the way it was written.
I did see a review that said the title didn’t match the story and I must say I agree. Yes there is a surgeon who is wrongly imprisoned, but I don’t think him being a surgeon is all that important to the plot. I thought it’d be like Jack Jordan’s Do No Harm, and it would be about things happening whilst on the operating table, but there was none of that. I think it would have worked just as well if it had a different profession, so yes, I agree the title is misleading.
The Surgeon himself wasn’t a nice character. I know that’s the point, and in a way John has written him well. But I still like to enjoy reading about despicable characters, whereas the Surgeon in this just made me too uncomfortable rather than scared, which is what I expect John was trying to get at.
I liked the ending but it was a bit rushed. I’d have liked it drawn out a bit because it’s plodding on and then suddenly it’s all sorted and it’s done.
I did enjoy it overall; it was a fresh take on the thriller genre, which is my most read genre.
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