A mysterious illness with disturbing symptoms is plaguing pregnant women. With the nation on the brink of panic, two doctors must put their past aside to find a cure. But as the stakes get personal, can they uncover a treatment before it’s too late?Dr. Jack Wyatt is done sulking. When he’s called to help his frantic best friend, whose newly-pregnant wife has been hospitalized, it’s the distraction he needs to finally get over his divorce. But the search for a cure forces him to work with the brilliant and beautiful Dr. Madison Shaw, with whom he has a rocky past.
Confronted by a disease they’ve never seen before, Jack and Madison must put their differences aside as severe symptoms plague more and more women. With the numbers multiplying and the nation on the brink of an epidemic, finding a cure may mean risking innocent lives.
The disease is spreading. Patients are dying. And no one can guess what will happen next …
Error In Diagnosis is the thrilling start to the Madison Shaw and Jack Wyatt medical mystery series by Gary Birken, M.D. If you like races against time balanced with medical authenticity, then you’ll love this pulse-pounding thriller.
Read Error In Diagnosis today to unravel a breathtaking medical mystery.
* Previously published as Error in Diagnosis under the pen name Mason Lucas, M.D.
Gary Birken is a full-time pediatric surgeon, medical thriller author, husband, father, grandfather, and more.
Born and raised in New York, Birken completed his undergraduate studies in Ohio, spent two years studying in Paris, before returning to complete his general and pediatric surgery training at the Ohio State University Hospital and Columbus Children’s. Upon completion of his fellowship in pediatric surgery, Birken moved to Hollywood, Florida where he has spent his entire professional career. Presently, Birken serves as the Surgeon-In-Chief of the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital.
As an Author, Gary Birken approaches novel writing as a means not only to entertain, but to educate the reader in a particular area of medicine. Birken’s approach to each book is first selecting a timely or controversial topic in medicine and then, using it as a springboard, Birken weaves a story of suspense and conspiracy around it.
When Birken is not in the operating room or writing his next medical thriller, he plays tennis, basketball and holds a black belt in martial arts.
As a retired RN/BSN of 40 years I love a good medical mystery. I thought this one was very interesting and exciting. One of my very favorite assignments in hospital care was in a neurology/neurosurgery unit for several years and I found this story fascinating in that regard as well. I will now read other books by Dr. Birken.
Too many errors in this book. Story would have been ok. First off, no neurologist from another hospital would be diagnosing a disease that was not neurological. He would not be involved in any other way once neurological diagnoses are dismissed. He would no way be on Air Firce one meeting with the president. No chief of Neurology would be diagnosing and treating a viral disease with medication. Treating a parvovirus that was not detected in testing would not happen by a neurologist. Infectious Disease would have been involved in this case. There’s absolutely NO way a chief of neurology would be performing a gynecological surgery!! Ob/gyn would be. Not neurology. It’s not the specialty he’s trained in. So unbelievable. Also so many errors, one Tess is 12 weeks when she goes into the hospital. Next she’s 28 weeks in 4 days in the hospital?? Impossible. Stating that it’s only affecting pregnant woman in their 3rd trimester then forgetting that you wrote she was 12 weeks??? Too many spelling errors also. Was there NO research, no fact finding or no editing in this book??? This was a horrible book. We are not idiots reading books!
Thank you Gary Birken and NetGalley for the advanced audiobook of this novel.
Definitely lives up to the hype of what to expect from a medical thriller. When a group of people are getting sick and no one knows why, the combination of the unknown plus the time crunch when human lives are on the line, creates a thrilling tension all the way through.
I would have liked to see more character development so I cared more about the characters, other than the fact that they sick are pregnant women. I felt the medical aspect of the novel took a higher precident.
The narration performance was great. The writing felt educated and intentional.
Error In Diagnosis is about the national race to stop the spread of a mysterious affliction affecting only pregnant women. The book is beautifully composed with excellent characters, who have significant arcs during the book and the pacing is perfect. I can recommend this book not only to fans of medical thrillers, but fans of very complex problem solving. This is one of the best medical thrillers I've read. 5/5 stars!
I had the audiobook read by Eric Jason Martin. His voice for Madison was ok which can be difficult for male narrators to pull off. It took me awhile to settle into the narrator.
I am drawn to a good medical thriller/ mystery, this premise sounded unique. A medical mystery which feels authentic and convincing with the depth of science and tech included, it did get quite technical in places. The writing style has a clinical setting feel while keeping the readers interest with the urgency of time restricted deadlines adding tension.
Dr Jack Wyatt is called to help his long standing best friend whose wife is one of many pregnant women coming down with a mysterious deadly illness named GNS which is only affecting women in the US. He works alongside Dr Madison Shaw in the race against time to find the cause and cure. There’s also history between the two protagonists.
It looks like the first in a series so I’m keen to listen to more.
Bravo!!!! What a phenomenal book. You know I'm a sucker for a good medical thriller. Not only was the plot fantastic and the medical mystery a complex one; but the main characters brought up such strong feelings in me, which is always a sign for a superb, six star read. As much as I absolutely loved Jack, I enjoyed hating Hollis with all my heart.
As a NICU physician, this storyline was particularly close to my heart and I found myself crying fairly early in the book. The budding relationship was intriguing but did not overshadow the plot. I enjoyed the pretty surprising red herring (trying not to spoil here) and even the medical politics, which is a topic rarely discussed in books.
The audiobook production, narrated by Eric Jason Martin was well done. The listening experience was smooth and enjoyable. He did a great job with the different characters.
I whole heartedly recommend this book, and so much appreciate the opportunity to read it, thanks to Netgalley and RB media.
Considering House is one of my favourite shows, I'm surprised I haven't read a medical thriller before. The premise sounded really good, and I hoped for an entertaining mystery, but this book really left me hanging.
I didn't even bother trying to remember the names; there were just too many. I was bored for the majority of the book, waiting for something interesting to happen. I'd hoped for a small reveal every now and then, bringing me closer to the solution, but it was all just meh. The ending was a let-down. Overall, did not enjoy this one. Maybe this is not my genre.
Excellent medical mystery book! I truly enjoyed listening to this audio book courtesy of NetGalley. It sparked immense amount of gratitude towards the doctors and medical professionals for saving lives. Most people just carry and don’t realize the true impact of the doctors. It was a great story and the narration was wonderful. I enjoyed and would recommend to my audience.
Fast paced informative medical thriller, for fans of "House".
A mysterious illness, GNS, is plaguing pregnant women and it is up to Dr. Jack Wyatt and Dr. Madison Shaw to negotiate the politics and egos of the hospital environment to find the underlying cause.
Pregnant women across America are turning up at hospitals suffering from a mysterious new illness that is putting their lives and their foetuses in danger. Why only some pregnant women? What do they have in common? This medical mystery thriller gets us right into the ER, the boardroom, and the White House, where dozens of bright minds try to figure out what's happening before it's too late. The author draws on his healthcare and hospital experience to draw the characters, including one annoying, ambitious, and showboating MD who believes he knows the answer (there's always one person like this at every hospital, in every office, amiright?). It is also scary to realize how much our current president has cut funding for the NIH, CDC, and other healthcare and research initiatives and vaccine mandates that have worked to keep us safe in the past. Good luck to us all.... I enjoyed this thriller - listened compulsively to the audiobook - and look forward to more in this new series. My thanks to the author, publisher, @TantorMedia, and #NetGalley for early access to the audiobook of #ErrorinDiagnosis for review purposes. Publication date: 25 August 2026.
For me a story that engages all your emotions is the best kind of reading. This story has it all and then some. I tend to be very picky about female lead characters and I love Madison Shaw. She's confident, smart, savvy and has a great sense of humor too. Jack Wyatt is a great match for her and together they make a great team. This story will keep you reading for hours and I can't wait to read the next installment.
This is one of the best medical thrillers I have ever read. The complex medical procedures were extremely well written so that an average reader would never become distracted by any misunderstanding of the situation. The author's astute character descriptions were both caustic and humorous. The thrilling ending couldn't have been more creative. The author also took time to describe the physical setting to perfection. I was so engrossed in this book that I actually felt the characters stress and exhaustion.
Pacing was great. And I love short chapters. But the errors kept taking me out of the story. I’m a layperson, so I can’t speak to the medical aspects. However there were a lot of times the wording was either weird and I wasn’t sure if the author just used language that way or straight wrong due to clear mistakes in the type that should have been caught by an editor. I expected it to be a first novel, independently published. There is just no excuse otherwise.
To not belabor the point, I’ll move on to the rest. I rarely ever read books this fast for a variety of reasons. The story kept me interested even though the broad strokes were what I expected. I didn’t feel like there was a proper payoff or explanation for one of the main red herrings, but otherwise was happy with how things played out. The a**hat got what he deserved and everyone lived happily ever after.
There was a romantic relationship that was shoehorned in for no reason whatsoever, but it was mostly a very minor storyline. I know it continues into future volumes of the series, but even though I don’t think it was necessary it could have been pushed off further down the line to make it a bit more of a natural progression of the relationship.
I will add further that while I am layperson in terms of the medical field, I do have a background in biology. The science was all stuff I was familiar with beyond the name of one specific hormone, so I suspect there’s not any concept that will be so confusing as to make the story hard to understand. And it might help you to understand the way the book presents the two main viewpoints of the medical professionals. It’s basically the “we’ve ruled some stuff out so this is what I think” versus the “we haven’t ruled out enough to have much of an opinion yet” crowds. It’s usually a matter of hubris versus ego that drives people in one direction or another. Incredibly intelligent people will find success regardless of which camp they fall into. If your pregnant wife, sister, or daughter were in a coma with an unexplained illness, you’d be understandably frustrated and impatient. And if you’re the aggressive, group 1 type you might be very angry at the group 2 approach. But it’s scientifically valid and arguably prudent to not rush through diagnosis and treatment.
All that said, I’d try more of the series and consider other titles by the same author.
Error in Diagnosis by Gary Birken, and narrated by Eric Jason Martin, is a 3.5 star (rounded up to 4) ALC for me! This medical thriller is the first in a series of three books following Jack Wyatt and Madison Shaw, both physicians with a bit of a unique overlap in their pasts.
Error in Diagnosis kicks off the Wyatt and Shaw series when pregnant women are presenting with a mysterious illness at hospitals across the US. It immediately caught my eye to request because I’m an infectious disease researcher who LOVES thrillers, absolute no brainer! I was so pleased to have the chance to listen to this ahead of publication of the audiobook.
The narration by Martin was terrific. I found it really easy to listen to and engage with. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I really appreciated how the illness (named GNS) involved so many different medical specialties (OB, ID, Neuro…). This kept the storyline really interesting! (With the caveat that WHO was treating WHAT and making the calls seemed a bit unrealistic). The pacing was really steady- which is probably good for people who are interested but don’t have a science background. I think that would definitely not be overwhelming to read for those who don’t have a scientific/medical background because of this pacing. Error in Diagnosis really kept me guessing (as both an infectious disease scientist AND a thriller aficionado!). I am absolutely adding the rest of this series to my list!!
I would give this book 3 3/4 stars. I found the writing a bit choppy. I would have liked more in depth medical details. I did like the realistic nature of the medical community reaching out to each other across the nation for brainstorming and problem solving. I did like the depiction of the most brilliant minds as normal human beings.
I spent probably the first half of the book thinking that Jack was absolutely useless - so many people raved about how great of a doctor he is and how they had to have him there, but his only answer to anything was “I don’t know”. Then, in the second half, he did EVERYTHING. and I feel like that is probably a part of being a doctor that I just never thought about. How infuriating it must be to not have the answer!
“Error in Diagnosis” is my first Birken read. I just finished it and will purchase Book 2 of the series as soon as I finish writing this review. Birken is a masterful storyteller. He weaves plausible medical scenarios, suspenseful drama, and credible characters into an intriguing saga of life and death.
This was an absolutely Great book to read. I’m sure things like this happen more often than not in the medical field. Like the Covid 19 scare. Something to think about. Glad Dr Wyatt stuck to his guns to overrule the other doctor that was not only rude but medically unethical. So glad the truth came out.
A Medical puzzle, hostile hospital politics, government cooperation (well, that's a new twist), and a little romance thrown in - I have no idea how it could get any better! I found very few medical treatments or references that lightly marred the whole thing - for instance, a staff member referring to a "respirator" rather than a ventilator, and Code Blue sequence that ended with only epinephrine given. Anyhow, I enjoyed it immensely and highly recommend it for an hour or two's reading in the evening. Trouble is, you won't want to stop until it's finished!
A great medical thriller with characters to root for. Pregnant women are coming down with an unknown disease, that is resisting all attempts at treatment. Can Madison Shaw and Jack Wyatt find out the cause and come up with a cure?
5 stars. wow! For a first book its intense especially coming off of the civic pandemic. The book held my attention all the way to the end. I loved the characters. They were well developed and fleshed out. I'm looking forward in reading more books in this series. I give a round about review with no spoilers. Its not fair to the next reader. Each need to develop their own opinions about the book. I loved the storyline. Can't wait for another book.
Loved reading this book. Had me worrying about patients. I can't say much more about that! Had me reading into the early morning hours, I just couldn't put it down. One of the best I've read.
Books involving the medical community have always been my weakness. Having worked with physicians/surgeons/researchers/CEOs, this book takes me back to the fascinating world of medicine. I highly recommend it.
I loved the characters and their interactions, and best of all I liked the way a huge of professional Doctors worked together. Let’s pray that that if ever we need a miracle,God will work through some great Doctors.