Shadow In The Ward by Ari Gray Book Review

 

I received a gifted copy of this sci-fi/medical thriller.

This is certainly not my ordinary read, but I did enjoy it. This tale takes place in the year 2042, which, when you think about it, will be here before we realize it.

This tale takes us on Dr. Seth Kelley’s quest. Dr. Kelley is an emergency room physician at Bayshore General and he is in a conundrum. He has become disillusioned with his profession. I like this aspect of his personality; it makes him real. He also has a family, his wife Rebecca who suffers with MS, and his daughter Abigail who is full of energy. Since Dr. Kelley works the night shift, he finds a work/life balance hard to maintain, also making him ‘real.’

Enter Dr. Winter. Dr. Winter is the creator of ALDRIS which is essentially the brain behind his AHPs (Automated Healthcare Providers). Dr. Winter is a devious fellow, I thought.

At Premier West Hospital, Dr. Kelley meets Daria, an amazing medical student, who has a thirst for knowledge. She attached herself to Dr. Kelley. There’s more to Daria than meets the eye.

Cody is the computer programmer who has been working with Dr. Winter for a very long time.

But … something goes terribly wrong.

Since this book falls into the sci-fi category, some of the scenarios are a bit farfetched, but are they really? This book really calls into question what is going to happen to medicine in the future. The idea of robots in the medical field is not unheard of, but they are not as smart as the ones portrayed in this tale. There is an underlying darkness between these pages, one that jumps out at the reader when it is least expected.

What I really enjoyed were some of the medical emergency scenes that the author was able to capture. I liked the characters in all their imperfections, their thoughts, the underlying darkness that falls at the feet of the AHPs, well tentacles really.