MORAL INJURY

A doctor must reckon with her traumatic childhood to expose a far-reaching conspiracy that targets infants in Haarsager’s thriller.

The tragic and increasingly suspicious death of an infant transferred to Children’s Hospital in Baltimore sends Dr. Lussi Sim down a conspiratorial rabbit hole. Dr. Sim’s “integrity, intelligence, work ethic and perseverance” are put to the ultimate test when she uncovers an “appalling” rogue operation being perpetrated by “a highly sophisticated and depraved international network.” When she is ordered to cease her investigatory activities and to keep a low profile, her internal response is, inevitably, “I can’t do what you ask.” The author, herself a doctor, establishes a sense of menace from the get-go as Dr. Sim notices she is being tailed by a black limousine on the night she is called in about the infant, who had been misdiagnosed at another hospital. The deeper her suspicions go and the closer she gets to figuring out what’s going on, the more serious the threats on her life become. (In one harrowing scene, she is injected with a killer dose of fentanyl.) An effective hospital-set thriller, this debut novel is just what the doctor ordered when it comes to setting its plot in motion. Haarsager knows her way around a hospital, and in Dr. Sim, who is haunted by flashbacks and nightmares born of childhood trauma, she creates an empathetic character whose professional expertise can be undermined by her personal demons. Early on, she is revisited by a childhood malady of “screams and shouting” in her head: “Her body tensed and she could feel sweat trickling between her breasts and shoulder blades as the threats...mounted in ferocity.” The conspiracy targets the most vulnerable, which makes the perpetrators especially heinous. The final portion of the book is on the talky side when it comes to “unanswered questions,” but this will be appreciated by those who like their mysteries spoon-fed.

A taut medical thriller that will keep readers in suspense “to the bitter end.”