The Dissector: A Medical School Mystery

by L.L. Spriggs

"Greed, Ambition, Lust, Revenge ...."

When Dr. Sarah Whitley entered the doors of the medical school, she thought the dream she had worked so hard for had finally come true. She had attained her first position as an Assistant Professor of Anatomy in a prestigious medical school in a uniquely historic city. Instead, what she found was the beginning of a nightmare that would change her life in ways she never imagined.

She had always looked up to the professors who had taught her throughout her education. They were ‘all knowing’; they were never wrong; and they were well respected professionals – everything she aspired to be. But it didn’t take her long to discover that, like so many of the people she had encountered growing up in foster care, her new faculty colleagues were flawed human beings, driven by greed, ambition, and lust. But they all had one thing in common – fear. Fear of the powerful and ruthless, Dr. Roberts, the Head of the Department of Anatomy.

While all Sarah wants is to concentrate all her efforts on becoming an effective lecturer and anatomy lab instructor, she inadvertently discovers the secrets hidden behind the closed doors of the offices and research labs of her fellow faculty – from the illicit affair between two scientists, to the sexual predator masquerading under the guise of a well-funded researcher, to the manipulative and double-crossing Department Head.

When compelled by Dr. Roberts to spend more and more time in the morgue, assisting with the embalming and preparation of the cadavers to be used in the medical school Gross Anatomy course, Sarah sees things that she shouldn’t see. But asking questions could be dangerous...

Genres: Mystery

367 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2015

Reviews

[Laura Ruetz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. This is a smartly written book with a smart and very capable (and relatable) lead character in the form of Sarah, who finds herself as part of the faculty in a school that turns out to be challenging. The beginning is a bit slow, and I almost forgot that this was a mystery thriller, but as it progressed, I got caught in Sarah's story and found it to be engaging and engrossing. The characters are well written and fully developed. Great twist at the end.

I was given a free copy of this book by the author

[Mary Grissom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captivating

It was a very suspenseful, interesting book. It had a lot of detail and the author did an amazing job. The only thing missing is that Sarah should have had a little romance along the way. I look forward to reading the next book.

[Patricia Hankins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great

Dissection anyone? This is a great story. No matter what the profession, some one is out to make it profitable just for themselves.

[Debbie Maskus · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my first novel written by LL Springs. The book fully covers medical school and the collegiate pecking order. The medical school tasks and duties seem endless and I begin to wonder why anyone would chose to teach. Dr. Sarah Whitley has been given the opportunity to teach anatomy at an university in Louisiana as an Associate Professor. The opportunity reeks more as an indenture slavery as Sarah must perform a multitude of chores. When does, Sarah have time to eat and sleep? After many chapters explaining medical school hierarchy, many faculty members enter the foray into explaining the disappearance of Dr. Roberts. Each faculty member might possibly have murdered Dr. Roberts. The story provides insight into the publish or perish me

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Then it became clear. There was only one option.’

The novel opens with a mystery: just where is Dr Yancey Roberts? The Head of the Department of Anatomy appears to have disappeared, and no-one knows where he’s gone.

Dr Sarah Whitley has just been hired as an Assistant Professor of Anatomy at the Medical College of Louisiana, a prestigious medical school in New Orleans. Sarah’s ecstatic: she learned from excellent professors and is looking forward to applying her knowledge in New Orleans. Her head of Department is Dr Yancey Roberts. It soon becomes clear that Dr Roberts inspires fear rather respect amongst Sarah’s colleagues, even though he’s not around much. While Sarah is keen to find out why, she’s also keen to do the best she can. Sarah, it soon becomes clear, is a workaholic and this novel is very much centred on her work life.

There’s plenty of detail about anatomical dissection in this novel. It’s all relevant to the character, and to the story, and while it does have the effect of slowing the story down at times that just kept me reading more quickly. It’s Sarah’s work in the morgue that becomes central to the mystery. Issues of ethics are raised, and the closer Sarah looks the more questions she finds.

I kept turning the pages, keen to find out what Sarah would discover and how she would deal with it. Every step seemed to involve some new information about Dr Roberts, making him even more unlikeable. What power did he have over some of his staff, and why?

And while I was wondering what would happen next, feverishly turning pages, knowing that I was getting towards the end of the story, the ending came. On one level, it’s a very satisfying ending. On another level, I hated it. I can’t tell you why I hated it without a massive spoiler, but it just did not ‘feel’ right to me. Satisfying? For sure. Appropriate? Probably.

But the real question is: would I read another book by Ms Spriggs? Definitely.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not often that a solid mystery read comes from a source other than literary circles; but L.L. Spriggs is a retired teacher of anatomy, and writing The Dissector seemed a perfect extension of her background and experience. And, yes: the book's title reveals some of its graphic and horrifying events.

The joy of The Dissector lies not in graphically violent scenes, as one might expect, but in a quiet buildup of psychological tension and a series of revelations that prompts Dr. Whitley at every turn to not just solve a mystery, but to consider the ethical ramifications of her decisions.

Much more than a 'whodunnit', The Dissector posits what happens when discoveries are made that go well beyond social or professional indiscretions to enter the realm of psychopathic behaviors and horrible threats, and in the course of building and examining the back rooms of what seems a venerable social institution, the story line provides a compelling search that is engrossing, unpredictable, and always fueled by Dr. Whitley's self debates and choices.

All this makes for a standout mystery in the genre, backed and fully supported by the anatomical expertise of its author: something most mystery writers can't claim, and a facet which makes the way the story proceeds all the better!

[Beverly E. McWhirk · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book

Lorraine Spriggs is a "newbie" author and I have a real soft spot in my heart for any first book. I know what an effort, and in some cases, a sacrifice it can be. First, the book summary really hyped excitement and intrigue in the story. T'aint so. The first 1/3 of it read like Spriggs' personal journal during her education/teaching of anatomy--more than I ever wanted to know about cadavers. Somewhere before the 50% milestone, she started to bring more characters into the action (including the main character who sounded less like Spriggs herself). After the halfway point, she began to use more dialogue and the characters assumed more persona (with occasional lapses of telling the story rather than working the characters' dialogue). The other element that was missing was humor. I had a good laugh when she told of the department head's Christmas party, but not so much as a chuckle otherwise. Among a staff that works together daily, there are always humorous events, and I'll bet Ms. Spriggs knows many that could be shared to liven an otherwise "clinical " novel. She has excellent writing skills. With practice, Spriggs has great potential as a fiction novelist.

[Sharon Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

When you read this book you will find certain similarities with your own working life, the dominant forces who make the decisions and look after their own interests and use information on their colleagues to maintain and further their own career and fortune.

The setting around the medical school and the descriptions of the running, teaching and feelings of the characters are first rate. The problems and issues they face in their every day routine is true to life which adds to the make up and credibility of the storyline. Being based around a medical school the terms used are always explained making for an easy read. The characters traits and characteristics are brilliantly described and you will be able to say that each and every one of them will remind you of someone in your own workplace.

A very enjoyable read which builds upto an excellent twist leading to a climatic end. The author has used her experience and knowledge from her working life which is evident in the storyline to produce a great work of fiction.

[C.L. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book serves up an education in anatomy and dissection. It also depicts what could be the perfect murder. But it suffers from a major flaw in its structure, which is why I give it only two stars. It begins as a first-person narrative, then switches to multiple points of view/third person in Chapter 14. That's s a huge no-no. In first person narrative, the narrator's is the only POV allowed. Readers must infer action that is outside of the narrator's knowledge or presence. With a little rewriting, the extra POVs would not have been necessary. The book's very drak message: Murder is OK as long as the one slain is a bad person, and that when people in positions of power abuse others, no one can stand up up to them except via murder. Not a very hopeful outlook.

[Scott Sammons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely fabulous, I rarely rate books too highly since with only five stars to work with all books are on a rather tight scale, with fives being the best most flawless works that I have ever read. I could find very little to dislike about this book. Some minor quibbles that come from my experience as an embalmed, but nothing at all wrong with dialogue, plotlines, description, etc. Good job all around. I very much hope to read more from this author.

[Michael Mardel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Dissector by Spriggs. I received a free copy of this book and volunteered to review it. I found the story was a real page turner, right from the beginning when the absence of the head of department was noted. The anatomy classes were interesting and show up Spriggs' past history. Will Sarah win the day?

[Mindy Pollock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn't put it down

The book was nothing like I thought it would be. I thought it was great. She develops the characters very well and definitely knows what she is talking about.

[Jacques Coulardeau · Rating 4 out of 5]

ACADEMIC HORROR HAS NO NAME NOR END

A book that is obviously based on some personal technical knowledge you can only get from inside a profession, and in this case the triple knowledge you can only know in very few professional fields, that of embalming the dead for burial or for the dissecting “bench” of some laboratory in a university, and of course in a plain simple post-mortem police morgue where the body is opened up for autopsy. This expertise is autobiographical for the author who was a professional in one of these three fields.

That’s where I am embarrassed by the first person of the “dissector’s chapters” in which the main female character tells us what she does or did. Most chapters are in third person, hence an omniscient and omnipotent author or storyteller takes over then. I would have preferred the whole book to be in third person which would have not required to shift from one vision to another in these first person chapters. Or everything in first person, which would have required to shift from one storyteller to many storytellers. We of course cannot evade that duality that makes the storyteller in third person the same as the storyteller in first person, hence it is autobiographical and that is embarrassing again since it is the description of a perfect crime, a perfect murder. Is the author confessing? I hope not. Then the first person is irritatingly cumbersome.

But let’s enter this academic medical novel, I mean this novel dealing with a medical school on a university campus, here one in New Orleans. It is a novel so I will consider the said campus is not a real one. It would otherwise become a pamphlet. And I hope it is not.

The book is yet a strong denunciation of many shortc!omings that are common place in many academic institutions, a lot more than you may ever think or know. Academia is a ruthless, exploitative, cruel and extremely vain petri dish in which the human material is either the germs (top hierarchy among the faculty) or the culture medium bases (the lower hierarchy among the faculty and of course the students, graduate or not). In the book you can see how far such inhumanity can go between researchers at the top, teachers under the former ones, graduate students who are just slaves and plain students (undergraduates) who are nothing but chattel or guinea pigs. Rare are the exceptions among the faculty or in the student body. And body is the proper word: to be used, abused and exploited in any way you may think proper or fit, as they used to say about a death penalty in the middle ages by drawing, hanging, and quartering. The methods used were only the inspiration of the executioner or the audience.

It shows well though research requires a lot of work but it shows also how some at the top of the hierarchy are no longer doing much because they use their underling research workers to do their own research (they only put their names on the papers or books, at times with the names of their slaves, and at times without the names of their slaves. The same goes on with graduate students who in fact do a lot of the research of their research directors who will systematically use the results or attempts of their graduate students not to improve them for the benefit of the graduate students but only to enrich their own personal research declared as such and as theirs only.

Anatomy is gross in all possible ways. Gross by the smell, gross by the exploitation of dead donated bodies by uncaring professors or students. The book is graphical about it though it tries to remain only gross and avoid the level of offensive repellence. Page after page it becomes mortiferous and morbid. I would advise the sensitive minds among the readers to skip some paragraphs and pages. It is obvious all readers have not killed a pig tied up head down on a vertical ladder, slaughtered a sheep, strangled a few kittens or bled a chicken (by cutting its tongue with scissors) or a rabbit (by out-rooting one eye) to death. Imagine those numerous passages when the main female character has been dissecting in class or embalming dead bodies and without any mention of her washing her hands or getting out of her scrubs takes her sandwich out and starts eating. Gross I said. Really gross. Not to speak of the money made on the side by selling donated bodies to some body speculators who can do what they want with them.

The male professors are often – or is it only at times – improper with many things particularly with women, be they colleagues, graduate students or plain students. Strangely enough, female professors are never improper with their male colleagues, male graduate students or plain male students. And there is no mention of any crossing of the gender line in any other direction than heterosexual. That makes the book slightly one-sided, but it is common to see that this is the dominant vision still on university campuses. If you speak of improper conducts, you imply male offenders and female victims. That is totally fake both in reality and extension. A great number of female offenders and male victims exist both in different-sex and same-sex configurations. But it is quite revulsive to see here how a male professor is disgustingly repugnant. The explanation that his wife is a terroristic spouse in private and in public is no explanation at all. One unhappy individual in marriage looks for a solution and not perverse alleviation in one eye from an outsider in the palace of one eye from the offending spouse I do not have the courage to confront for the eye of mine she has ripped out of my skull.

Grades of course are manipulated in all directions. They call that with the decent euphemism of curbing; It can be general for everyone in percentage. It can be absurd for everyone in the same flat number of points given to all, or motivated by the hostility of liking of a professor for a student. I have been confronted to all possibilities, plus the order in a department not to flunk anyone, or the demand from some parents for me to curb the grades of their son or daughter. That’s why in an English test for a Fulbright scholarship I got 103%. I was over the highest grade ever given in that test. It was curbed and after me it probably was curbed up instead of down. Curbing is extremely questionable. It hides the reality of a situation. I remember a “school inspector” on a day of national test grading starting the session by telling us he wanted to increase the curbing by two points. We, the graders, refused flatly since those under passing level could go on an oral salvaging test down to 25% under this passing grade. The inspector wanted us to go down to 45% under the passing grade.

All that makes this book a real manifesto against academic practices and common obviously unrecognized rules and customs. And it does not speak of hazing, which is a serious shortcoming. Nevertheless, the book is fascinating but keep a pail next to you for the vomiting you might have to perform when reaching some pages.

Enjoy Uncle Sam’s exhibitionism.

Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU