Knife Music: A Novel [Hardcover]

David Carnoy (Author)

Book Description

Release date: July 8, 2010

Kristen Kroiter was sixteen, a high-school sophomore, when she was injured in a car accident. Dr. Ted Cogan had saved her life when he treated her in the ER six months ago-but now police detectives were questioning Cogan about her, in intimate detail. What was going on? What had she told them?

That's just it, the cops said. She hadn't told them anything. She had died. Looked like a suicide. And Cogan was in a heap of trouble.

Tense and twisting, Knife Music is the story of a doctor struggling to clear his name after being accused of raping and causing the suicide of a young girl. The novel pits Cogan, a forty-three-year- old surgeon and self-described womanizer, against Hank Madden, a handicapped veteran detective. From the outset it's not clear who is victim and who is victimizer, as the usually dispassionate.

Madden grapples with his long- suppressed prejudices and his obsession with bringing Ted Cogan to justice at any cost. It all leads up to the most stunning surprise ending since Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Carnoy's debut, a thriller set in California's Silicon Valley, fails to deliver on the promise of its intriguing conceit--the degree of a doctor's legal responsibility in a patient's suicide. Shortly before hanging herself from a showerhead, 16-year-old Kristen Kroiter wrote in her diary about having sex with 43-year-old Ted Cogan, a senior trauma surgeon reputed to be a playboy. The doctor treated her in the hospital after she drove her father's Volkswagen Jetta over a curb and struck a telephone pole a few months earlier. Arrested for contributing to Kristen's death, then suspended from his job, Cogan begins playing gumshoe to clear his name. He eventually tracks many of the case's weak underpinnings to a fraternity at nearby Stanford University. Despite a varied cast of characters and some snappy plotting, the story flattens in the middle and struggles to resuscitate itself. Readers who stick around for answers to nagging questions may find it wasn't worth the wait.
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From Booklist

Carnoy injects an uncommon level of medical expertise, from physical trauma through hospital hierarchy, into his fine debut thriller about the fraught world of doctors. The novel certainly works as medical drama, but it is also a gripping detective story and a revealing character study about what makes docs tick. We learn, for example, that many doctors’ lack of empathy can be seen as stemming from the fact that they were trapped in labs and libraries during the crucial social-skills-gaining years. One such doctor may be Ted Cogan, a surgeon, who is questioned by detectives after the death of one of his former patients, a female high-school sophomore. Cogan saved her life after a car accident six months before. Now the girl has taken her own life, and a trail of evidence points to a sexual relationship with Cogan and a motive for him to have killed her. Veteran detective Hank Madden, in charge of the case, is a brilliantly realized secondary character. Utterly baffling until the very last page. --Connie Fletcher

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Overlook Hardcover; First Edition edition (July 8, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590203259
• ISBN-13: 978-1590203255
• Product Dimensions: 1.3 x 6.5 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (128 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,100,017 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

While David Carnoy lives in New York City with his wife and children, his novels take place in Silicon Valley, where he grew up and went to high school (Palo Alto). His debut novel, Knife Music (2010), was a Top-10 bestseller on the Kindle and also a bestseller on the Nook. More medical thriller than high-tech thriller, to research the novel Carnoy spent a lot of time talking with doctors, visiting trauma centers, and trailed a surgeon at a hospital in Northern California to help create the book's protagonist, Dr. Ted Cogan.

The Big Exit (2012) isn't a sequel to Knife Music per se. However, a few of the characters from Knife Music figure prominently in the story. His second novel has more of a high-tech slant and reflects Carnoy's experiences as an executive editor at CNET.com, where he currently works and is trying resolve his obsession with consumer electronics products. He went to college at Wesleyan University and has an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University.

"A lot people ask me how I have time to write novels when I have a full-time job and four little kids and I just say I got a hold of some of those pills Bradley Cooper's character popped in the movie Limitless," Carnoy says. He adds that if Bradley Cooper is reading this, he'd make "an excellent Dr. Ted Cogan for the film version of Knife Music."

Carnoy is also fan of The Big Lebowski and all Coen brothers movies except The Ladykillers.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, fantastic Kindle price October 23, 2010

By Pushed 60

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Don't let the Publisher's Weekly review keep you from reading this book. I downloaded it because at $3.99 it wasn't going to be a big loss if the book was no good. Hah! It was great...I was expecting a Patricia Cornwell/James Patterson type novel and this was much, much better, with a completely unpredictable ending! Police/doctor mysteries are not what I usually read, but this was just different enough that it held my interest throughout. It's hard to give a synopsis without creating a spoiler but just read it...you won't be disappointed and if you have a Kindle, it's a great bargain at twice the price.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A good, interesting mystery October 5, 2010

By MN Snowman

Format:Kindle Edition

This is the author's first book and at times it shows. But I found it interesting and worthy of continued attention. Liked it well enough to put the author on my Follow for Next Book list.

I also saw it's discounted to only $3.99 for the Kindle edition. I'd say that's a great bargain rather than a statement of relative value... be a bargain hunter and you will not be disappointed!

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Good read...not great.... August 1, 2010

By J. Brandt VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

I have to be the first (?) to only give this book less than 4 stars. Why? First, the going back and forth between what led to the incident of rape and suicide in the book and then the return to the present day events wore me out. I also think that before I bought the book I assumed that it was going to be a 5 star read given the reviews from other readers so I may have been expecting too much.

The suspect, Ted Cogan, is a surgeon who operates on a 16 year old girl after she is involved in a severe auto accident. The story includes all types of people (other doctors, ex girlfriends of the doctor and friends or acquaintances of the 16 year old). Later, the girl commits suicide and, according to her diary, she is in love with this surgeon. Did he have anything to do with her death? Did he commit the rape of this girl that he is accused of? I'll let you read the book to find out, but I just did not enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. Yes, it has a good twist at the end, but I still found myself frustrated by the "back in time and now here's the present day" writing style.

I liked the book. I didn't give it 4 stars or more. It wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't great either.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Could not put down. October 11, 2010

By Barbara Mayberry

Format:Kindle Edition

I read this book in two days. Fast paced. I could not put this book down. I will definately be waiting for David Camoys next book.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing November 28, 2010

By SenoraG

Format:Kindle Edition

This was an amazing suspense story. Ted Cogan is a great character to get to know. He is a surgeon with a a sense of humor and both feet on the ground. Being good looking doesn't hurt him either but does it make him a rapist? You will ask yourself this over and over as you read. I changed my mind more than once.

The writing flows very well and the author manages to not only take us into the mind of a gifted surgeon but the minds of teens as well, boys and girls. That is no easy feat if you ask me. Each chapter tells the story from a different character which I liked.

I particularly enjoyed reading the snippets from Kristen's Journal. The author hit it right on the head with the style a teen uses while talking. I admit annoying to read at times but dead on.

Example from page: 145
"She was like did he say anything about me? And I was like,yeah, he asked me where my partner in crime was. And I was like, she's over talking to the Gap guy."

If you are a mystery, suspense, thriller lover pick up this book. It's hard to believe it's the author's debut novel. I sure want more!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great idea for kindle October 31, 2010

By Sheabirdie

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have been in a reading rut and was looking for something new, and Kindle had this book priced $3.99, for a first time author. The premise seemed interesting and the ratings were really good so I thought I would give it a try. I really liked it- it moved along well and had a solid ending. I will look for more from this author and thank you Amazon for pricing it right for me to give it a try, I don't know if I would have otherwise.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Knife Music August 31, 2010

By stewart LEWIS

Format:Hardcover

Reading Knife Music was an experience akin to having excellent, healthy, fast food. Fast paced,excellent plot, enough detail without being distracting,well developed interesting characters,and an ending that was worth the wait. I read the book in a day, just made my Train stop on my commute, and went to bed 2 hours past my normal time. I can now look forward to getting my life back. Kudos!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Impossible to put down -- consider yourself warned! November 18, 2010

By D. Chugh

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I could not put this book down! The suspense was killing me ... and, I really was rooting for several of the characters, despite the fact that they were adversaries! They were so believable, and so human, and so admirable yet flawed. The book made me think, and at the same time, totally swept me away into that wonderful place that only books can create where you aren't thinking at all. Now, I feel the need to re-read the book to put it all together, or at least debrief with someone else who has read the book. Definitely a book I highly recommend, and one I plan to include in several Christmas presents!