The Surgeon
By: Leslie Wolfe

Anne is married and had two daughters. Anne has an amazing career as surgeon. She has never lost a patient in twelve years. The time comes and the man she did surgery on in someone she recognizes! Could she have done more to save him?

Paula is seeing Anne’s husband and she is determined to ruin his wife’s life. She is an ambitious Assistant State attorney who can make Anne’s life miserable as she as her agency is investigating the death of Anne’s patient.

This novel is fast-past and my first book by this author. I will be looking for more. This novel has everything you want in a thriller. Twists, trust issues, and characters you hate!

Triggers: Rape

Thank you NetGalley. This book is available March 8, 2023

This book is about a surgeon. She loses a patient during a routine surgery. Fairly early in the book is a nice unexpected twist. This is a good book that I’d recommend reading especially if you enjoy a medical related thriller.

I LOVED listening to this. AWESOME narration. Was easy to follow. So many twists. Shout out to Netgalley and publishubg for this listen and review!

4 STARS!

A talented and successful surgeon has the shock of her life when she discovers whose on her operating table. If anyone ever deserved to die… By the time the surgery is over the patient is dead, but was the death preventable? Did the surgeon forget the the motto “First do no harm?”

Pick up this novel and you will find it hard to put it down again, and when you have read it, you will find it easy to believe that you have actually been there experiencing the story yourself.

The audiobook is well narrated, with a likeable and easy to listen to narrator who had no difficulty maintaining my attention.

Ambition and jealousy play second fiddle to revenge in this standalone thriller by Leslie Wolfe. A tragic event in the life of a young woman has a deep affect on the life and livelihood of a heart surgeon. There is another drama going on, and this drama is due to the actions of her husband. The surgeon is Dr. Anne Wiley and she is married to a well-respected man named Derreck who just might be the very next mayor.

However, another story is being told. Anne’s husband is having an affair with Paula, a woman who seems bound and determined to bring Anne down. While a tragic loss of life during surgery could cost Anne everything, ambition facing her husband and his lover are also at play.

The lives of these three characters are very much intertwined, although Anne is unaware of what is going on between Derreck and Paula. All Anne wants is to avoid being prosecuted and jailed for the death of the patient she recently lost. Paula has other plans, and if ruining Anne happens along the way, then that will perhaps satisfy Paula. While Derreck was a man definitely caught up in the illicit affair, loyalty comes into play. This is especially so as the career and reputation of his wife is very important to him.

While The Surgeon is an exciting thriller with multiple twists, so much so that forming opinions on the characters is easy from the very beginning, especially to the degree where you as a reader might just despise Paula as much as I did. However, I listened to this book as an audiobook that was narrated by Gwendolyn Druyor. While audiobooks is one of my favorite forms of reading, I was less than satisfied with the narration, especially when it came to the voice of Anne. I felt that she was too whiny every time the book was turned to her perspective. Maybe it was the narration, maybe it was the characterization of Anne.

Despite this one caveat, this didn’t take away from my enjoyment of this latest book by an author that I very much enjoy. I absolutely love the Kay Sharp series by Leslie Wolfe, and very much appreciated having a medical thriller as her latest book. I hope she continues to write standalone thrillers because she did a fabulous job with The Surgeon. With excellent pacing, a sad but intriguing storyline, as well as the medical aspects of this book, this was quite a compelling read.

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.