Customer Reviews

Under the Knife (MIRA)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I had mixed feelings when I saw that Tess Gerritsen's UNDER THE KNIFE was going to be reissued in a standalone edition for the first time. This was my first Gerritsen book and remains my favorite after all these years. I'm glad people will have a chance to discover it. I've also seen how some readers who didn't discover this author until she started writing mainstream thrillers have responded to her early romantic suspense titles. I hope people will go into it with an open mind. This is a great book.

UNDER THE KNIFE was originally published in 1990 as Harlequin Intrigue 136. Yes, it is a romance novel. It is also the only one of Gerritsen's early books to take place in and around a hospital, though it is more of a murder mystery than a scientific thriller like her recent work. The main character is Dr. Kate Chesne, who is performing a routine operation on a friend in the Honolulu hospital where they both work. Then the patient dies and Kate is accused of malpractice. The woman's family hires a high-profile lawyer, David Ransom, who goes after doctors "like her." Kate is stunned. She knows she didn't do anything wrong and she is determined to vindicate herself. At first, David is skeptical of her claims of innocence. Then they learn that Kate's patient was only one of the staff members at the hospital to die under unusual circumstances. Someone is killing doctors and nurses to protect a long-buried secret, and Kate's search for the truth has moved her up to number one on the killer's hit list.

UNDER THE KNIFE is a book I have reread many times over the years, not only my favorite Gerritsen book but one of my favorite Harlequin Intrigues. I think the reason it works so well is because of the characters. I've read complaints about her other Harlequin rereleases that Gerritsen's romance characters are cardboard. It's funny. I've always thought the characters in her mainstreams were more one-dimensional, overwhelmed by plots that don't allow for much character insight. In this book David and Kate are real people with complex histories, families and hopes and fears. By the end of the book, I felt like I knew them well and cared what happened to them. That's why the final scene with David and Kate is so beautiful. I know some people will be uncomfortable with the high emotional level. There are some big moments, including the climax, will either strike readers as unbearably melodramatic or genuinely moving. I'm a guy and it takes a lot to get to me. This is one of the few books that I can think of that made me cry.

I'm making this book sound really drippy. It's not. The mystery is excellent. There is a healthy dose of suspense and Gerritsen knows how to keep readers guessing. Some of the moments where Kate is stalked in the hospital are chilling. The ending is pretty powerful, when we find out the killer's motivation and all the secrets some out. I also liked that this wasn't a one-note villain. The character was 3-dimensional too. I liked the Hawaiian setting, too. Then again, it should be clear by now that I just love this book.

In UNDER THE KNIFE Tess Gerritsen writes chilling suspense, an intricate mystery, and a moving romance. I can't think of many mysteries where the characters are as important as whodunit, or romances that are truly gripping and suspenseful. This is one. Every time I finish it I want to start over again from page one. To me, that's a great book. I'm not saying it's literature, but for six dollars, or the two-fifty I originally paid, it's well worth the price. It made me a big fan of this author and ten years later, I'm still reading her. My first, and still the best.

I read this book a long time ago in a 3 in l book. I had forgotten when I bought this book. Even though, I remembered the ending, I was still completely entertained. This is a story of a doctor who gets accused of being careless and letting her patient die. As things start to unravel, you know she is innocent and the lawyer who was bound to see her in court realizes that there is a lot more to the story. Together they go out in a search of the truth. Excellent twists and turns that keep you guessing up until the end.

FROM THE BACK COVER: "For David Ransom, it begins as an open-and-shut case. Malpractice. As attorney for a grieving family, he's determined to hang a negligent doctor. Then Dr. Kate Chesne storms into his office, daring him to seek out the truth -- that she's being framed. First it was Kate's career that was in jeopardy. Then, when another body is discovered, David begins to believe her. Suddenly it's much more. Somewhere in the Honolulu hospital, a killer walks freely among patients and staff. And now David finds himself asking the same questions Kate is desperate to have answered. Who is next? And why?"

In her eight months on the job as an anesthesiologist, Dr. Kate Chesne has had an impeccable reputation. But it only takes one moment to ruin a career ... and to end a life. When a routine surgery results in the death of a patient, medical records indicate that Kate was derelict in her duties ... criminally so. Attorney David Ransom hates doctors. All doctors. It was because of a negligent doctor...[that] David has dedicated all his time, energy and skill as a malpractice attorney to seek out and punish careless and/or completely incompetent physicians. So when Dr. Kate Chesne bursts into his office one day pleading with David to drop his case against her, proclaiming her innocence while admitting that there is no other reasonable explanation for the patient's death, David ruthlessly and dispassionately sends her away. As the body count rises and as David has more and more contact with Kate, he begins to believe in her innocence and in the undeniable physical attraction he feels for her. David is forced to withdraw himself from the case against Kate due to his "conflict of interest" ... after all, is there any bigger conflict of interest than sleeping with the opposition?

The suspense is wonderful. Someone is killing off all of the personnel involved in the death of a woman and her premature child several years earlier. Who and why? Is it...the still-grieving ex psychiatric patient who was the woman's lover and the child's father? Or is it someone else? Someone with their own reasons for making sure the events of that tragic night never reach the light of day? The romance is both great and frustrating. Great in that is it very passionate. Frustrating in that David and Kate ping-pong back and forth between "I've got to have you!" and "This relationship is never going to work out." Intriguing whodunit with several viable suspects.

Great book as always, Tess. Kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. It would have been better though if I didn't know everything in advance thanks to a reviewer. God, Kissmereviews, why not just tell who the killer is? You told everything else about the book! The secret the main mystery is about, David's motivations, everything! Read the book, not the review. It's still worth it. Daisy

This book has been recently re-issued. Do not bother buying it as it is a poor read and you will have read the same plot before in other works. Her recent work is in a different league so do not expect this to be anything like as good.

Under the Knife is the 4th stand-alone novel by Tess Gerritsen. Dr Kate Chesne, anaesthetist, finds herself being sued for malpractice when a patient under her care dies on the operating table. To David Ransom, a lawyer specialising in medical malpractice suits, it seems to be an open-and-shut case. But when an attending nurse is murdered, and Kate is pursued after coming upon the scene, she becomes suspicious that the patient's death was murder, and manages to eventually convince David of this. This novel is a medical murder mystery, Gerritsen's forte, with some romance thrown in. Gerritsen gives us a plucky heroine who refuses to be silent or be a victim. While not her best work, there were a few plot twists and it was still quite a good read.

The book arrived promptly and in very good condition! I would definately reccomend buying and reading this book.

I'm not quite sure why I keep reading Tess Gerritsen novels. Perhaps it's because they require so little of the reader. There's rampant violence for shock value and sappy romance with heaving bosoms and aching or throbbing whatevers.

This book, one of her earlier works, is a mismatch of murder mystery and lust between two beautiful, educated, articulate people. It just doesn't work for me, this mixture of the two genres. Never for a second did I believe in the so=called romance (aka lust) part, and the mystery was a bit over the top.

Gerritsen does know her way around hospital politics, about drugs, operating rooms, surgical instruments, etc. After all, she is a physician, so there is a certain realism in that area. But there still has to be a believable plot to go with that knowledge. The reader has to be "sold" on the plausability of the story line. And there have to be characters that don't make the reader say, "Oh, come on now" every few pages.

i loved the book! tess has me on the edge of my seat. it is a real page turner!

I found this book not very exciting . Things just kept happening with not many of them resolved.