Tea & Read: Diagnosis Death

Title: Diagnosis Death

Author: Richard Mabry

Rating: Wall Target Practice (one star)

This is the first book I’ve read from Richard Mabry, who has entered the Christian fiction world filling a much needed niche, medical thrillers. Needless to say that I expectations for this book was very high. Unfortunately, the book disappointed me very much.

I must confess up front that I didn’t finish the book. More like couldn’t finish. This book required me to suspend my disbelief too much. The medical aspect was credible enough. I could almost smell that yucky hospital smell while I was reading it. Also the writing was solid and had a good flow and pacing to it. The novel drew me in right from the beginning. Sadly, this wasn’t enough to keep my attention.

The biggest turn off was the main character, Elana. So many times her behavior was either confusing or conflicting. She begins the book mourning her husband so heavily that she’s not sleeping. But then, halfway through the book, she’s showing interest for another man. I thought that was too big of a change.

Also, some Elana’s decisions threw me off. I found it hard to follow her motivations behind those decisions. I got to the point where I really didn’t care what happened to her, which motivated me to give up on the book.

I sincerely hope that Mabry continues to write for the sake of the medical thrillers genre, but I leery about attempting another one of his books, unless I get it from the library.