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Shell Shock
When psychiatrist Dr. Gus Conrad is called to consult by the U.S. army for its growing epidemic of suicides and PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) among soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, his problems begin.
Accused of murdering one of his own patients, a soldier with PTSD, Conrad learns from the mother that the answer to who is the real killer resides in England, where her family holds a long-hidden secret.
Now Conrad must find the real killer as he slips out of the country to uncover to his horror the practice over the past century of British and U.S. armies both secretly killing their own soldiers who claimed psychological problems following combat, deeming them cowards, making their deaths look like suicides.
The current head of the American death squad has apparently killed Conrad’s patient, and is now targeting Conrad himself for death. Following the clues in England, Conrad is shocked at what he discovers.
Will Conrad and Warburton be able get back to the U.S. to expose the practice of armies killing their own soldiers they deem cowards? Can they stop the rogue leader of the American death squad before they themselves are killed?- GenresMystery
450 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 17, 2015
31 people are currently reading
220 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
July 27, 2015
Another incomplete ending
One wonders if the author is trying to entice you into buying his next book or just tired of writing this one. When reading something for hours, it is satisfying to have it completed. The characters can always be brought back in another novel at a different time.
One wonders if the author is trying to entice you into buying his next book or just tired of writing this one. When reading something for hours, it is satisfying to have it completed. The characters can always be brought back in another novel at a different time.
December 25, 2015
This started out epic and then began to bog down. I couldn't get that interested in it and then it began to pick up again. I am unsure whether the storyline between two timelines was working for me. I really think in order to make it work we would have to have two main characters from each timeline. The way it went didn't work for me. I got bored.
December 18, 2025
Shell Shock is a gripping and provocative thriller that tackles the rarely explored moral consequences of war. Steve Stahl masterfully blends psychological suspense with historical intrigue, creating a story that feels both urgent and unsettling. Dr. Gus Conrad is a compelling protagonist whose journey exposes chilling secrets buried within military institutions. The novel’s pacing is relentless, its revelations shocking, and its themes deeply resonant. A powerful read that lingers long after the final page.
December 18, 2025
Steve Stahl delivers a bold and haunting narrative in Shell Shock, one that courageously confronts the hidden costs of combat and institutional silence. The plot unfolds with precision, drawing readers from modern-day military psychiatry into a dark historical conspiracy spanning generations. Stahl’s meticulous research and emotional depth elevate this novel beyond a standard thriller, making it both intellectually engaging and emotionally impactful. Highly recommended for readers who appreciate suspense with substance.
December 18, 2025
Shell Shock is a fast-paced, intelligently written thriller that shines a harsh light on the treatment of soldiers suffering from PTSD. Steve Stahl skillfully weaves psychological drama with international intrigue, creating a story that is as thought-provoking as it is suspenseful. The stakes feel intensely real, the danger palpable, and the ethical questions impossible to ignore. This is a novel that challenges the reader while delivering a thoroughly absorbing experience.
December 18, 2025
With Shell Shock, Steve Stahl has crafted a compelling and courageous novel that explores the darkest corners of military history and human conscience. The narrative is tense and tightly constructed, moving seamlessly between personal tragedy and global conspiracy. Stahl’s portrayal of trauma, loyalty, and betrayal is both nuanced and unsettling. This book stands out as a smart, gripping thriller that dares to ask difficult questions.
December 18, 2025
Shell Shock is an emotionally charged and suspense-driven novel that grips the reader from the outset. Steve Stahl’s storytelling is confident and incisive, balancing heart-pounding action with profound psychological insight. The exploration of PTSD, moral accountability, and institutional power is handled with sensitivity and urgency. This is a riveting and important novel that will appeal to fans of intelligent thrillers and socially relevant fiction alike.
December 18, 2025
Shell Shock is a gripping and thought-provoking thriller that shines a harsh light on the hidden cost of war. Steve Stahl masterfully blends psychological drama with fast-paced suspense, creating a story that is both emotionally powerful and impossible to put down. Dr. Gus Conrad is a compelling protagonist, and the moral questions raised about PTSD and military accountability linger long after the final page.
December 18, 2025
Shell Shock is a gripping and thought-provoking thriller that shines a harsh light on the hidden cost of war. Steve Stahl masterfully blends psychological drama with fast-paced suspense, creating a story that is both emotionally powerful and impossible to put down. Dr. Gus Conrad is a compelling protagonist, and the moral questions raised about PTSD and military accountability linger long after the final page.
December 18, 2025
Shell Shock is a bold and courageous novel that tackles uncomfortable truths with intelligence and compassion. The plot is intense, the pacing is excellent, and the stakes feel incredibly real. Stahl does an outstanding job of humanizing soldiers struggling with trauma while delivering a suspenseful mystery that spans generations and continents.
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December 18, 2025This novel is a chilling exploration of secrets buried deep within military history. Shell Shock moves seamlessly between psychological tension and international intrigue, keeping the reader hooked from start to finish. Steve Stahl’s careful research and realistic portrayal of PTSD give the story authenticity and depth, making it far more than a typical thriller.
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December 18, 2025From the opening pages, Shell Shock pulls you into a dark and unsettling world of conspiracy and moral corruption. The characters are richly drawn, especially Dr. Gus Conrad, whose personal and professional struggle adds emotional weight to the story. This book is both an exciting thriller and a powerful commentary on how societies treat their wounded veterans.
December 18, 2025
Steve Stahl’s Shell Shock is an eye-opening and suspense-filled read that combines history, psychology, and action into a compelling narrative. The revelations uncovered in England are shocking, and the sense of danger never lets up. Readers who enjoy intelligent thrillers with real-world relevance will find this book deeply satisfying.
June 8, 2020
A page turner
Very enjoyable with real life issues. Relatable to me,having worked with veterans in the VA system with huge elements of fantasy (I hole). I can waitait to see what happens next.
Very enjoyable with real life issues. Relatable to me,having worked with veterans in the VA system with huge elements of fantasy (I hole). I can waitait to see what happens next.
December 23, 2016
http://psychcentral.com/lib/shell-sho...
Before there was post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, there was shell shock. Unlike the way that the current term brings to mind wounded veterans reliving moments from their darkest times at war, “shell shock” was a term used to loosely define something that wasn’t well understood, and carried an even more pronounced stigma than PTSD.
In Shell Shock: A Gus Conrad Thriller, psychiatrist and author Steve Stahl takes an acute look at shell shock and modern day PTSD from a surprising platform — a fictional thriller.
The book follows the journey of psychiatrist Gus Conrad, a man accused of murdering a soldier with PTSD who was one of his own patients, as he tries to clear his name. His efforts to prove his innocence draw him into a nefarious secret — a plan to exterminate soldiers who are suffering from shell shock/PTSD that traces back to the first World War.
The American death squad, known as The Patrons of Perseus, operates on the premise of celebrating and encouraging heroism and eliminating cowardice — and, due to a lack of knowledge, eliminating those with shell shock/PTSD.
Conrad spends the remainder of the novel balancing self-preservation and a crusade-esque desire to expose The Patrons of Perseus and change the face of military psychiatry in the process.
While it carries a tremendous amount of valuable and gut-wrenching information about the realities of PTSD — both in recent years and when it was known as shell shock — the book is unable to strike a balance between being a weighty, content-driven textbook and a plot-driven thriller. Stahl proves his expertise on the subject by interlacing treatment specifics for those with shell shock/PTSD, using examples from World War I to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but doing so without any real concrete suggestion. Despite the clinical content, the text focused heavily on the social stigma of PTSD and how that plays out from the military perspective.
Although it is a heavyweight when it comes to information, the book suffers when it comes to literary quality. The editing is poor, demonstrated by disjointed sentences, incomplete ideas, and short and choppy chapters that move the reader from one country and one era to another in less than two pages before tossing them back again.
As a reader, this left me trying to catch up and follow the path of the story with little success. The book ends without resolution or completion, leaving the impression that the author wanted to finish the story in a sequel or that he was unsure of how to wrap this installment up. I found the writing style to be simplistic and, at times, elementary. While not a deal breaker, that does detract and distract from the gravity of the topic, and also doesn’t fit the tone. Again, this speaks more to the editing than to the content, but it effects the overall product just the same.
Still, the actual goal of the novel is genius. By demonstrating how the military responds to PTSD/shell shock, it sparks dialogue about not only the best practices of treating the condition from the psychiatric perspective, but also of the inner workings of the military that could be adjusted to better support (and in this case, not murder) soldiers suffering from PTSD after deployment. But again, although the concept is compelling and intrigued me, someone who has recovered from trauma-induced PTSD, it falls flat. I found myself wanting a solution, a suggestion, an answer, but received none as I turned to the last page.
While I didn’t appreciate the merging of the textbook-like content and fictional thriller components, the two on their own are both stellar and effective. The reality of what soldiers go through with PTSD is highlighted accurately, including the differences between World War I veterans and vets from more recent conflicts.
My impression of the book’s overall goal is to communicate the stark realities of shell shock/PTSD in a fictional, thrilling, and page-turning package, wrapped in a layer of psychiatric foundational knowledge. The motivation behind this project and the amount of information it conveys is to be applauded; in this sense, it hits the mark. The plot build-up works up to a point — and then the ending disappoints.
I would recommend reading this book with two different sets of glasses on: one for a thrilling fiction novel about a psychiatrist who exposes a plot to kill American soldiers suffering from PTSD, and another pair for a realistic examination of the psychiatric implications and responses to PTSD in the military. By approaching the book as one or the other, it becomes a much stronger read.
Before there was post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, there was shell shock. Unlike the way that the current term brings to mind wounded veterans reliving moments from their darkest times at war, “shell shock” was a term used to loosely define something that wasn’t well understood, and carried an even more pronounced stigma than PTSD.
In Shell Shock: A Gus Conrad Thriller, psychiatrist and author Steve Stahl takes an acute look at shell shock and modern day PTSD from a surprising platform — a fictional thriller.
The book follows the journey of psychiatrist Gus Conrad, a man accused of murdering a soldier with PTSD who was one of his own patients, as he tries to clear his name. His efforts to prove his innocence draw him into a nefarious secret — a plan to exterminate soldiers who are suffering from shell shock/PTSD that traces back to the first World War.
The American death squad, known as The Patrons of Perseus, operates on the premise of celebrating and encouraging heroism and eliminating cowardice — and, due to a lack of knowledge, eliminating those with shell shock/PTSD.
Conrad spends the remainder of the novel balancing self-preservation and a crusade-esque desire to expose The Patrons of Perseus and change the face of military psychiatry in the process.
While it carries a tremendous amount of valuable and gut-wrenching information about the realities of PTSD — both in recent years and when it was known as shell shock — the book is unable to strike a balance between being a weighty, content-driven textbook and a plot-driven thriller. Stahl proves his expertise on the subject by interlacing treatment specifics for those with shell shock/PTSD, using examples from World War I to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but doing so without any real concrete suggestion. Despite the clinical content, the text focused heavily on the social stigma of PTSD and how that plays out from the military perspective.
Although it is a heavyweight when it comes to information, the book suffers when it comes to literary quality. The editing is poor, demonstrated by disjointed sentences, incomplete ideas, and short and choppy chapters that move the reader from one country and one era to another in less than two pages before tossing them back again.
As a reader, this left me trying to catch up and follow the path of the story with little success. The book ends without resolution or completion, leaving the impression that the author wanted to finish the story in a sequel or that he was unsure of how to wrap this installment up. I found the writing style to be simplistic and, at times, elementary. While not a deal breaker, that does detract and distract from the gravity of the topic, and also doesn’t fit the tone. Again, this speaks more to the editing than to the content, but it effects the overall product just the same.
Still, the actual goal of the novel is genius. By demonstrating how the military responds to PTSD/shell shock, it sparks dialogue about not only the best practices of treating the condition from the psychiatric perspective, but also of the inner workings of the military that could be adjusted to better support (and in this case, not murder) soldiers suffering from PTSD after deployment. But again, although the concept is compelling and intrigued me, someone who has recovered from trauma-induced PTSD, it falls flat. I found myself wanting a solution, a suggestion, an answer, but received none as I turned to the last page.
While I didn’t appreciate the merging of the textbook-like content and fictional thriller components, the two on their own are both stellar and effective. The reality of what soldiers go through with PTSD is highlighted accurately, including the differences between World War I veterans and vets from more recent conflicts.
My impression of the book’s overall goal is to communicate the stark realities of shell shock/PTSD in a fictional, thrilling, and page-turning package, wrapped in a layer of psychiatric foundational knowledge. The motivation behind this project and the amount of information it conveys is to be applauded; in this sense, it hits the mark. The plot build-up works up to a point — and then the ending disappoints.
I would recommend reading this book with two different sets of glasses on: one for a thrilling fiction novel about a psychiatrist who exposes a plot to kill American soldiers suffering from PTSD, and another pair for a realistic examination of the psychiatric implications and responses to PTSD in the military. By approaching the book as one or the other, it becomes a much stronger read.
October 6, 2015
Brilliant Platform to promote mental health issues, but very simplistic.
I have always admired Dr. Stahl, and writing a thriller to explain PTSD to the public is ingenious. Having thought about the possibility of writing a book myself, I'm impressed that he completed the book (although he has the advantage of having already published many textbooks.) Unfortunately, the text is preachy, focusing on the stigma problem, and presents only the views of diabolical military personnel. It could have given some explanation about how PTSD is treated, instead of just suggesting longer breaks between deployments, including women in army units, and further studies. Medication can be very helpful, (although it's not specific to PTSD), supportive therapy, and even insight oriented therapy when there has been childhood trauma, which is sometimes the case. The American Psychiatric Association has approved EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), which has a lot of promise. I don't think the book will compete very well with traditional thrillers, although it does replicate the stereotype. I don't think Dr. Stahl had a very good editor. Finally, while the main character was a psychiatrist who had both PTSD and substance abuse issues, there is no mention or thought that he could be treated (except I think he had stint in detox/rehab in the remote past). Is this just a statement that psychiatrists are as ambivalent about treatment as everyone else, or will we hear all about it in the sequel?
I have always admired Dr. Stahl, and writing a thriller to explain PTSD to the public is ingenious. Having thought about the possibility of writing a book myself, I'm impressed that he completed the book (although he has the advantage of having already published many textbooks.) Unfortunately, the text is preachy, focusing on the stigma problem, and presents only the views of diabolical military personnel. It could have given some explanation about how PTSD is treated, instead of just suggesting longer breaks between deployments, including women in army units, and further studies. Medication can be very helpful, (although it's not specific to PTSD), supportive therapy, and even insight oriented therapy when there has been childhood trauma, which is sometimes the case. The American Psychiatric Association has approved EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), which has a lot of promise. I don't think the book will compete very well with traditional thrillers, although it does replicate the stereotype. I don't think Dr. Stahl had a very good editor. Finally, while the main character was a psychiatrist who had both PTSD and substance abuse issues, there is no mention or thought that he could be treated (except I think he had stint in detox/rehab in the remote past). Is this just a statement that psychiatrists are as ambivalent about treatment as everyone else, or will we hear all about it in the sequel?
November 26, 2015
Steve Stahl’s Shell Shock is a savant blend of fun and facts! Those who have had the pleasure of attending a lecture by Professor Steven Stahl will recognize the same ‘flavor’ in this book. The very autobiographical main character, Gus Conrad, and his involvement in the uncovering of a covert policy of army hitmen murdering soldiers with PTSD makes for an entertaining intrigue mixing historical fact with fiction. Personally I found the impressive myriad of fascinating facts about army psychiatry and its evolution (or lack of it) over the last 100 years almost more interesting than the fictional plot which is very predictable. The characters are only roughly sketched and we are never able to get to know any of them. Hopefully they will be more fleshed out in any sequel. The ending is disappointing and we are left craving closure! (I even wondered for a moment if my copy was missing some pages).
Towards the end, the book lobbies heavily for a major overhaul of US army psychiatry and especially the recognition and treatment of PTSD. While this is obviously an important and laudable goal I am not sure that its inclusion in a fictional novel is ideal – for the lobbying or for the novel.
Towards the end, the book lobbies heavily for a major overhaul of US army psychiatry and especially the recognition and treatment of PTSD. While this is obviously an important and laudable goal I am not sure that its inclusion in a fictional novel is ideal – for the lobbying or for the novel.
November 30, 2015
I commend Steve Stahl on this well-written book which made me understand PTSD much better than what is portrayed in mainstream media. Despite the fiction tag, this book will provide insight into the lives of those who fight for freedom and their families. The soldier in the middle of Shell Shock may not represent the entire army of a nation but his death does raise interesting questions in real life about mental illness, PTSD and care for veterans once they return to home soil.
Gus Conrad has seen and dealt with a lot of trauma in his life and that of his patients. His most recent case will take this to a whole different level. This was a magnificent book which was written with incredible detail and chilling facts on how PTSD is dealt with.
Reviewer Disclosure - I received a free copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
Gus Conrad has seen and dealt with a lot of trauma in his life and that of his patients. His most recent case will take this to a whole different level. This was a magnificent book which was written with incredible detail and chilling facts on how PTSD is dealt with.
Reviewer Disclosure - I received a free copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
August 22, 2016
A fantastic combination of page-turning suspense and well-researched history. The result is an expert lesson in one of the critical issues of our time (PTSD) told in the context of a fast paced, enjoyable thriller.
February 10, 2016
Shocked
Ending unexpected. A good representation of a historical deficiency in Army practices. I appreciated the connection to current events. I'm left wondering what happened to nurse Libby ? Can I wait?
Ending unexpected. A good representation of a historical deficiency in Army practices. I appreciated the connection to current events. I'm left wondering what happened to nurse Libby ? Can I wait?
December 27, 2016
A Good Thriller
I really enjoyed this thriller Shell Shock. It really takes you places you've really only ever thought about. The shooting of shell shocked soldier from WWI to soldiers of the present time. It suggests treatments for people with PTSD. A Good thriller.
I really enjoyed this thriller Shell Shock. It really takes you places you've really only ever thought about. The shooting of shell shocked soldier from WWI to soldiers of the present time. It suggests treatments for people with PTSD. A Good thriller.
June 23, 2015
Wonderful story and fast, compelling read from renowned Psychiatrist Stephen Stahl. Hard to put down!
December 15, 2015
very good
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November 23, 2015Very informative..and shocking. I had never heard about this before. Thanks for the exposé.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews