To the Bone [Kindle Edition]

Neil McMahon (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This exhilarating new medical thriller by the author of Twice Dying and Blood Double brings back sleuthing physician Carroll Monks, plunging him into personal jeopardy. Monks is on duty at San Francisco's Mercy Hospital when a beautiful young woman is brought to the emergency room in a coma. He makes a radical attempt to save her life by administering a blood thinner; the attempt is unsuccessful, and the patient dies. The girl's enraged parents intend to bring a medical malpractice lawsuit against Monks that could ruin his career. Wracked with guilt, Monks sets out to investigate the patient's history. As he soon learns, the dead woman, Eden Hale, was a model and aspiring actress reduced to doing porn films. Delving further, Monks becomes convinced that there's more to the girl's death than simple malpractice. Specifically, his suspicions center on Dr. Welles D'Anton, San Francisco's premier plastic surgeon, who caters to the rich and beautiful, and who operated on Eden shortly before her death. D'Anton is arrogant but expert-hardly the type to make a mess of a relatively simple procedure. Thus, Monks has his work cut out for him. This exciting and tautly written thriller crackles with suspense and narrative tension throughout. The hospital scenes are believable and the plastic surgery angle is convincingly detailed. Monks, a most engaging medical detective, is at his best with his back to the wall, and McMahon comes into his own with this scalpel-sharp effort.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Emergency-room physician Carroll Monks returns in his third adventure, and once again the San Francisco doctor has to moonlight as an amateur sleuth to solve a mystery. This one is particularly important to Monks, since it involves one of his own patients, a beautiful young woman who died under his care. Facing charges of malpractice from the girl's parents, Monks follows the trail of clues he gleans from the body. Mysteries featuring physicians as sleuths are plentiful, but the Monks mysteries manage to follow the basic formula while being different from most of their competitors. McMahon is a more stylish writer than many medical-thriller authors--far superior, for example, to Robin Cook. His plotting is different, too: while there's plenty of medical detail, as the formula requires, he approaches the story as though it were a police procedural. Just like the good ol' gang at McBain's 87th Precinct, McMahon forces Monks to follow the clues one lead at a time. An excellent series propelled by solid plotting and an intelligent protagonist. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 320 KB
• Publisher: HarperCollins e-books (October 13, 2009)
• Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0013ALNLG
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #360,960 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

Neil McMahon is the co-author, with James Patterson, of the #1 New York Times bestseller, TOYS, and has published seven other mainstream thrillers. Between 1987-90, he also published three horror novels under the pseudonym Daniel Rhodes. He holds a degree in psychology from Stanford, and is a journeyman carpenter, with many years spent working in construction. He moved to Montana in 1971 and lives there with his wife, Kim, who coordinates the annual Montana Festival Of The Book.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The high price of beauty., January 4, 2004

By 

E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: To the Bone (Hardcover)

Dr. D. Welles D'Anton is a plastic surgeon for the rich and famous. He takes pride in removing physical imperfections from the women whom he transforms with his scalpel. However, as we see in Neil McMahon's medical thriller, "To the Bone," sometimes the pursuit of beauty is just not worth it.

Dr. Carroll Monks is an emergency room physician, employed in a San Francisco hospital, who is suffering from burnout. He has a failed marriage under his belt, children he rarely sees, and a borderline drinking problem. His girlfriend, Martine, seems ready to move on.

Monks is on duty when a beautiful young woman named Eden Hale is brought in to the ER in excruciating pain. The day before, Eden had been Dr. D'Anton's surgical patient. Now, the young woman is suffering from a rare blood clotting disorder with no obvious cause. Dr. Monks valiantly tries a controversial treatment to treat Eden, but he fails to save her. The fallout from this episode may cost Dr. Monks his job.

In an effort to prove that he was not responsible for Eden's death, Monks, along with his private investigator friend, Stover Larrabee, decide to look into Eden's background. They discover that the world of the rich, beautiful, and famous is, ironically, one of ugliness, insecurity, jealousy, and selfishness. Delving into the depressing world of the "beautiful people," Monk learns that there are individuals who look good physically, but who are even more emotionally burned out than he is.

The best moments in "To the Bone" are those that deal with the medical problems in the ER. The book falters when McMahon resorts to stereotypes in his exploration of the surgically enhanced women who rely on plastic surgery to stay young. There is another plot in "To the Bone" that deals with a serial killer. This plot is underdeveloped and the resolution comes out of left field.

"To the Bone" makes the valid point that the worship of physical beauty is a losing proposition. In addition, those who live for the moment, without any regard for the long-term consequences of their behavior, are foolish and self-destructive. Unfortunately, with the exception of Dr. Monks, who is a fully developed, three-dimensional character, "To the Bone" is as shallow as the beautiful women it depicts.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging, fast-paced medical suspense story, November 2, 2003

By 

booksforabuck "BooksForABuck" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: To the Bone (Hardcover)

Emergency room Doctor Carroll Monks is disturbed when a beautiful woman fails to respond to his treatment. Healthy young women shouldn't die--and when he notices strange bruisings, he orders powerful and non-standard treatment. The treatment fails and Monks is left wondering if he failed, or if someone else was responsible for Eden Hale's death. Because Eden was recovering from breast implant surgery, there is the possibility of complications and Dr. D'Anton, plastic surgeon to the beautiful people, is an obvious suspect. After all, how did a woman like Eden even afford D'Anton's price?

In this fast-paced story, author Neil McMahon introduces a string of suspects. The plastic surgeon, his sculpter-wife who once had an affair with Eden, the beautiful assistant, and the tough and secretive nurse all have possibilities. But as Monks and his friend, private detective Larrabee, investigate, they discover that D'Anton has been associated with other bizarre events and even a missing girl. Could Eden's death be only the tip of an obscene nightmare? McMahon occasionally steps into the point-of-view of a serial killer, indicating that Monks is onto something larger and more dangerous than he imagines.

Monks makes an interesting character with his woman troubles, his problems with excess drinking (not the man I'd want working on me in an emergency room), and his obsession for discovering the truth. Playing to society's strangely ambiguous feelings about doctors who create beauty, McMahon maintains the suspense and keeps the pages turning.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fast, October 13, 2003

By 

Konrad Kern (OFallon, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: To the Bone (Hardcover)

See storyline above.

Though somewhat short and a little light on character depth (it's been many books ago since I've read his last one so I don't remember the characters), this McMahon medical thriller was satisfying. This one is comparable to McMahons previous novels.

Recommended