The Final Push

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

synopsis

Synopsis

While on call for the trauma service, third-year medical student Michael Higgins finds himself in an extraordinary situation. He is summoned to the ER to participate in the evaluation and management of a critically-injured patient and soon discovers that the unconscious man lying before him is the same man who, two months earlier, committed a heinous act of violence that shattered Michael’s personal life. Following a lengthy emergency operation, the patient—known only as John Doe—is now under the care of the trauma team, of which student doctor Mike Higgins is a member. As John Doe’s condition gradually improves, Higgins’ personal life deteriorates further, but there might be a way to reverse the downward spiral: if he sees to it that John Doe never leaves the hospital, Michael Higgins’ world may right itself.

bio

Author Biography

I’m a former heart surgeon turned fiction writer. I write what can be described as medical mysteries, medical thrillers or novels of medical suspense, but I prefer to think of them as novels of surgical suspense. What is surgical suspense? Surgeons, surgical diseases and the operating room are all inherently dramatic. As a former surgeon, I’ve experienced this drama first hand and thought it would make for good fiction. My surgery training took me from the knife-and-gun-club of LSU Medical Center in Shreveport, Louisiana, to the famed Bellevue Hospital in Midtown Manhattan. My education as a writer includes an MFA degree where I was mentored by New York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane, among other accomplished faculty. I know a lot about medicine and surgery, I know a lot about writing and storytelling, and I believe that combining this vast and unusual right-brain/left-brain experience will make for interesting reading and discussion, so please visit often.

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Author Insight

John Doe has been admitted to the trauma service.

Michael tells Lisa that their attacker, John Doe, is in the hospital with life-threatening injuries sustained during a car accident. She is unsure of the best way to proceed.

Book Excerpt

The Final Push

“What are you going to do?”

“If he’s alive in the morning, I guess I’ll call the police.”

Lisa sat back and stared through Higgins as if he wasn’t there. After a few moments she refocused. “Maybe we should think about it before we get anyone else involved, figure out some things?”

“Figure out what? We call the police. If he lives, he goes to jail the day he’s discharged. He’s convicted of assault and battery, rape, attempted murder, and he rots in prison.”

Lisa fidgeted with the blanket. “I’m not sure I want him to go to prison.”

“What? What does that mean?”

“Maybe I don’t want him to go to trial. What if he gets off somehow?”

“Gets off?”

“You know, there’s a mistake in the way the case is handled, or the evidence is misplaced? They let him off on a technicality?”

“They have his DNA. It’ll be a slam dunk.”

“For you it’s a slam dunk. You think I want to sit in the same room as the filthy pig who raped me and crushed my skull? Look at him day after day? Get up and tell a room full of people what happened? I can’t go through that.”

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Richard Van Anderson

The Final Push

Synopsis

Author Biography

Author Insight

John Doe has been admitted to the trauma service.

Michael tells Lisa that their attacker, John Doe, is in the hospital with life-threatening injuries sustained during a car accident. She is unsure of the best way to proceed.

Book Excerpt

The Final Push

Comment on this Bubble