Short Book Reviews: A Deliciously Bizarre and Terrifying Dystopic Medical Thriller

 Leech, by Hiron Ennes (Tordotcom)

I should preface my review with the confession that although I don’t read a lot of horror, this novel captured my imagination and kept me staying up way too late, turning the pages. It straddles the boundary between science fiction and horror, with a nod to thriller pacing and suggestions of fantastical elements. In a far, but not too far, dystopic future, Earth is barely recognizable. Upheavals have overturned the layers of crust, so that the surface is all but barren. Humans must mine the caverns for wheatrock foodstock. Winters are bitterly cold and getting worse. Even so, settlements persist. One such is an estate ruled by a grossly obese baron who relies on sophisticated machinery to stay alive. When his doctor dies, he sends to the elite Interprovincial Medical Institute for a replacement (the narrator). But this is no simple matter of sending another graduate of the same school. The nameless narrator shares consciousness, knowledge, and memories with every other graduate. In fact, they are all human hosts for a single, telepathic parasite.

As if that weren’t bizarre enough, the cause of death of the former physician turns out to be a second parasite arising deep in the caverns. It’s not only deadly, it’s incredibly difficult to kill, and it’s spreading from one host to the next like wildfire.

I loved the medical neepery, the skillful way the author introduced the characters and plot elements, the rocketship ride of dramatic tension, and the wildly inventive world-building.

Content warning for violence, gore, mental rape, and a few other horrors. The book might be too nightmarish for some readers.

Short Book Reviews: A Vaccination Medical Thriller

Kingdom of Needle and Bone by Mira Grant (Subterranean Press) belongs in the tradition of

epidemic thrillers, always a favorite of mine for their medical neepery. In this story, a measles-like a virus (“Morris’s Disease”) results in a loss of immunity to all pathogens. Besides the illness itself, with its fever, rashes, and so forth, the patient’s immune system loses the ability to “remember” being exposed to any other infection. Therefore no immunization to any disease gives protection. The mortality rate from this disease is very high, but worse yet is that the survivors are left without the ability to fight off future infections of any type. The only way they can survive is by complete quarantine, which figures prominently in the story.

The story begins with journalistic descriptions of Patient Zero, her fatal illness, and the spread of the disease, which is highly contagious and easily spread by contact with inanimate objects such as door knobs. A more personal view of the unfolding catastrophe comes through the point of view of that child's aunt, Dr. Isabelle Gauley, a physician who later devises a strategy to save humankind from the epidemic. Some medical thrillers jump from one point of view to the next, showing the many different and varied experiences as characters either succumb to whatever plague has arisen or take part in finding a solution. By focusing on just one character who has a personal relationship to the first victim and who also has complicated relationships with other members of her family, Grant skillfully sets up the surprising twist at the end. Cataclysmic historical events — like the Black Plague of the 14th Century CE — affect multitudes but can be emotionally remote unless dramatized through the lives of individual characters. Grant achieves both the world-changing nature of a pandemic and the intimate journey and ultimate personal responsibility of a small set of characters.

Short Book Review: Motorcycles, Mayhem, and Psychiatry

Medea’s Curse, by Anne Buist (Legend Press, October 2016) This psychiatric thriller immediately

reminded me of the work of Tess Gerritsen and the “Alex Delaware” novels of Jonathan Kellerman. Yet Buist’s heroine is very much her own person, an Australian motorcycle-riding forensic psychiatrist who specializes in women who have killed their own children.

With dramatic tension that never lets up, the story follows Natalie King through cases past and present, with danger never far behind. But who is stalking her? The attentive husband of an inmate who may or may not have multiple personality disorder? The boyfriend of one of her clients, now in prison – and whose present  wife has just been accused of murdering their baby? The charming attorney with whom she’s shared a fling? With the lives of other children at stake, Natalie races to solve the mystery before it’s too late. 

One of the things I liked best about the book was the understanding that no professional can deal with material this upsetting without a support system of her own. Plus it’s really cool to have a strong woman hero who is also really smart!

From the book: Anne Buist is the Chair of Women’s Mental health at the University of Melbourne and has over 25 years clinical and research experience in perinatal psychiatry, working on cases of abuse, kidnapping, infanticide, and murder.