The Surgeon

Thrilling from the start. Still enjoying it.

unique, intense and gripping

Tough position to be in in the operating room.Not I suppose paying attention to your patient.Lots of twists in this drama.Not happy about the ending like the author just couldn’t think of a proper result.Overall a good read .

I have read several books from this author and had given them five stars. In them, the protagonists were always mentally strong and seldom wavered on doing the right thing. But not in this case. Anne, the heroine, is full of self doubts and always questioning herself on whether she did the right thing. Worse she was in tears every other page, or on the point of crying. I found this very annoying to read. In fact, she comes across as Paula described her - a spoiled, rich, and weak woman. The ending too was unsatisfactory, leaving readers hanging in the air.

THE SURGEON [2023] By Leslie WolfeMy Review 3.5 Stars Out Of 5.0 StarsI actually bought this latest release by Leslie Wolfe on April 8th because it was a no-brainer. It was rated at the time as the #1 Best Seller in Medical Thrillers on Amazon, and despite its release exactly one month before I downloaded it the book had acquired nearly 14,000 ratings between Amazon and Goodreads. It was not unsurprisingly a quick read once I started and it was finished early on the third night of my bedtime reading schedule this month.The novel was a “no-brainer” to buy as previously stated. But this was not due to any reviews, accolades, blurbs, escalating number of positive ratings, or other factors. It required no hesitation to hit the “Buy Now” button because I am well acquainted with the works of Leslie Wolfe. She is amazing and I have been reading her works for about six years now. I have read all seven (7) of her TESS WINNETT series, the trilogy of novels collectively titled BAXTER AND BOLT, and also two out of three of her STANDALONE works. I have purchased three of her KAY SHARP series but have not read them yet. Leslie Wolfe is an incredibly accomplished writer and one that delivers a 5-Star Read in almost every case. I was a bit peeved about one of her Winnett titles, but ALL of the others I awarded 5-Stars. She is truly an amazing author who I have always felt was underrated.“The Surgeon,” Wolfe’s recent release and the fourth addition to her Standalone Books, suggests to me that she is experimenting with genre boundaries with this novel’s remarkable twisty twists and unreliable narrator writing technique. That is hardly new to the scene since many of today’s household names broke new ground when they adopted versions of some degree of deviation from the old genre boundaries of the “psychological thriller” to forge their own stylized calling cards.This novel is about a highly respected and skilled heart surgeon who loses her first patient on the operating table when she is unable to restart his heart using the typical clinical procedures to restart the stopped heart following its surgical repair. Dr. Anne Wiley is the main protagonist in the book and the reader accompanies her along every step of the way absorbing all of her thoughts, feelings, and statements through the author’s use of the First-Person Narrator. In fact, Wolfe uses alternating chapters which feature two female First-Person Narrators.The reader meets tough professional Criminal Prosecutor Paula Fuselier in the alternating chapters of the novel. Paula is known widely by the nickname she had earned in the crime world of Chicago (“Pit Viper”) which was indicative of how deadly they perceived her to be if they crossed her path. Her tenacious performance as a Prosecuting Attorney in the Courtroom caught the eye of her boss Mitchell Hobbs, and it is early in the novel that she graciously accepts a promotion to the head of the Criminal Prosecutions Bureau with the expectation that she would be coached to fill his shoes one day. Paula would take her current Investigator and staff with her to her new office when she was officially taking over as the new head in 90 days.The plot is gradually unraveled as we read from the two main characters’ perspectives as the action moves along and the tension escalates. Anne and Paula have more than one thing in common. One is Anne’s husband Derrick who has political aspirations and is presently running for the Mayor of Chicago. I do not consider that I have revealed any significant spoilers since the reader learns about the existence of Paula and the extramarital affair almost immediately in the book.The hand grenade which launches the plot into the stratosphere is Paula’s relentless attempt to figuratively cut off Dr. Anne Rider’s head and mount it on her wall as a well-earned trophy. It amounts to child’s play to make a calculated guess as to the motivation of the “Pit Viper” Paula. That is a “Duh!”Readers of psychological suspense (or the “Domestic Suspense”) novels these days are incredibly savvy for the most part and can ferret out the genuine “clues” or breadcrumbs that are dropped along the way and smell a “red herring” from a mile down the road. Personally, I do think that the use of what I refer to a dueling first person narrators make it a little more difficult. My rationale is that I keep having to remind myself that one or both of them may be “lying like a rug”.In this surprising but refreshing new approach by Wolfe, I was both happy and disappointed. There are a few “What the?” plot twists that I felt were from remarkably unlikely to downright implausible or unbelievable. The main protagonist of Dr. Anne Rider was far less lovable and downright grating on my nerves well before the 75% mark. I cannot elaborate without potentially leaking a spoiler. I can say that the primary protagonist of Anne presented as too perfect and righteous 99% of the time, and I can also disclose that one of these two ladies (?) are unreliable narrators with egregious lies of omission.The bottom line? Dueling First-Person Narrators with enough unexpected plot twists to cause a pile up on a major thorough fare is not what I have been accustomed to from reading the works of Leslie Wolfe. I did like the “Cliffhanger” ending with a caveat. That is I would have enjoyed it more if all of the contents of the narrative supported the believability that it was a potential outcome. Instead of a smug smile and a silent “All righty then” I ended the book with a puzzled look and “Nah! Would not happen” in my thoughts.