Jon Morgan is a retired police Superintendent and francophile who, it is said, has consequently seen almost everything awful that people can do to each other. He relishes quality writing in all genres but advises particularly on police procedure for authors including John Harvey and Jon McGregor. Haunts bookshops both new and secondhand and stands with Erasmus: “When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I may buy food and clothes.”
An all-powerful hospital Consultant is found in a compromising position in his locked office, after hours. Not dead, but in a persistent vegetative state, he is admitted to a ward in his own hospital.
Thus begins problem number one. Because he is not dead, overworked and not terribly competent Plod, are not interested in the inconsistencies raised by the consultant’s houseman Dr Kash. If you are spotting clichés already, then me too!
Dr. Kash investigates, finding that because the generally well regarded (well apart from the porn, auto-erotic asphyxiation, drug abuse and cross dressing ) The Consultant has significantly ‘upset’ a great many people, inside and outside the hospital over a very long period of time, the list of suspects is very, very, very long. It includes colleagues, patients, ex-patients and relatives of the latter, his wife – one lovely touch is that his wife visits her now drooling husband with her boyfriend, behaving, as one fellow patient puts it; ‘inappropriately.’
Shock, horror! The Consultant is, in fact, in a locked-in coma and Dr Kash realises that he may be able to communicate. The trouble is, he tells someone who tells someone else etc…
This leads, via various explored but not entirely ruled out suspects, to a denouement, but not before the unfortunate Consultant, who can still feel pain but cannot communicate the fact, has his catheter blocked; receives a diuretic (ouch, my eyes were watering and legs involuntarily crossed themselves) and also has his fingers, with which he may be able to tap out messages, broken — needless to say without anaesthetic!
The end, when it finally comes, is unexpected to say the least and if you think you have sussed out who set-up the good Consultant, or indeed why, then you still won’t guess the ending.
All in all a competent and enjoyable thriller and the author, who is a Professor at UCL in the medical field, certainly knows his onions, as you would hope and expect. That said, there are a few places where the narrative grinds to a halt and an authorial intervention to explain some medical term or other, or give a character’s back-story, just seem clunky.
A good one for Summer holiday reading and whilst also praying that you never, ever get admitted to the hospital where this thriller is set. Make up your own mind, but worth a read!
