Beat the Reaper: A Novel by Josh Bazell

I’m in the midst of a 48-hour travel fog/jet lag/confusion/stupor (a state of mind with which EC Don is intimately familiar), so I hope I do this very good book justice. This is a first novel by a medical resident although one who I gather is a couple years older than your usual post-grad doc. The story begins as the intern is on his way to the hospital in the wee hours when a guy tries to mug him, not knowing this man in scrubs not only does not have any money and does not have any drugs (beyond his personal stash that he will need for the next couple days), but he is a former mafia hit man (wake up, Charlie Stella, you’ll like this one). The resident puts the guy down and then later encounters him in the ER -- funny stuff. Peter Brown/Pietra Brnwa is the protagonist who was raised by his grandparents who were apparently holocaust survivors, and he gets pulled into mob service when he avenges their murder, and when his best buddy’s father takes over as surrogate father. After some years as an active hitman, he enters the witness protection program and goes to med school, which he is paying for via the money he has earned from the hits. The bad guys figure out who and where he is, so the chase is on. Wait until you read the scene in the shark tank. What makes this book stand out is the excellent narrative – fast, well-written, and I hate to use the word gripping, but it is. I thought the medical writing was as clear and honest as anything I’ve ever seen, at least from a clinical and (psychiatry term) countertransference perspective. The book jacket indicated that Bazell is writing his second novel, and I look forward to that one. This one, for our genre, comes with my 5-star recommendation.

WC Don