The Donors

by Leslie Alan Horvitz

paperbound

Genres: Horror, Thriller

440 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 2, 1982

About the author

Leslie Alan Horvitz is a NY Times Best Selling author of over 31 novels and several works of non-fiction with editions of his books published around the world.

Leslie's most recent novel is medical thriller SynBio with his other books including The Memory Hole, The Donors, Double Blinded, The Dying and Causes Unknown.

Leslie is also the author of several works of nonfiction, most recently The Essential Book of Weather Folklore, The Encyclopedia of War Crimes and Genocide, The Weather Tracker and Night Sky Tracker Eureka: Scientific Breakthroughs That Changed the World.

To help write his medical thriller books, Leslie has researched epidemics ranging from Ebola and HIV in Zaire to Lassa Fever in Sierra Leone and Hantan Fever in China.

Leslie lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is another novel from a box of paperbacks from hell I acquired some time ago. Horvitz takes a page from Robin Cook and writes more of a medical thriller than a horror novel per se. Some shadowy group controls a range of corporations, etc., including 'the center' in NYC. Our main protagonist, Riess, is a medical examiner who stumbles upon a strange victim-- a movie star burned in her car. Riess is pressured into lying about the autopsy, hiding the that she was in fact murdered. Eventually, this lie is hard to contain, and he is presented with a plan-- fake your death (with our help) and lead a new life, or basically face jail. He takes the plan and the novel really kicks off from there.

No more details, (spoilers to be sure). This is the second novel of Horvitz I have read, and it captured just enough interest for me to finish. Flat characters and stereotypes abound, along with a rather tired plot. If you like Cook, it may be worth a read.

[Nicolette · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this at a yard sale purely for the cover and the title, knowing absolutely nothing about what I was getting into. The initial plot line was intriguing (I enjoy forensic books), then took a sharp turn to places I wasn't expecting. The story dragged at times, but overall was decent to keep me engaged. I will echo what another reader said about the characters, in that stereotyping and misogyny abound. The ending was also lackluster to say the least and left more questions than answers (not in the best way) but for a book I obtained for a quarter, I was pleased.