My son loaned me a innocent little yellow covered paperback book, "Beat The Reaper, " by Josh Bazell.
Turning to the opening chapter, I was smitten - in love I tell you - by the first line: "So, I'm on my way to work and I stop to watch a pigeon fight a rat in the snow, and some fuckhead tries to mug me!"
The great news is the read gets even better. Carol Memmott, USA Today, is quoted on the cover "It's just what the doctor ordered...think House meets The Sopranos." She couldn't be more right!
Bazell wields wonderfully strong verbiage and a bouncing story line that darts between a clearly depicted real-world hospital environment and a fantastical realm of underworld brutality.
I'm finding the book disturbing (I even have nightmarish dreams). I find it engaging. I find the work mesmerizing.