Doing Harm

Kelly Parsons's debut novel is a medical thriller set inside a hospital. Steve Mitchell, a chief resident in surgery, is ambitious and confident, charged with turning a group of trainees into doctors, with a prized position within reach. Then a patient dies under mysterious circumstances, and it becomes clear that a killer is at work in the hospital, one who is playing a deadly game with Steve and holds information that could wreck both his career and his marriage. Alone and under suspicion, he has to outwit his opponent and save the next victim. Alongside the suspense, the novel looks at the politics and hierarchy among doctors and the life-and-death decisions they make.

Stephen King called it the best medical thriller he had read in a quarter century, praising its frightening operating room scenes and well-drawn characters.