Grade A pulp fiction! Published in 1994, The Select is a medical thriller when these were all the rage following Robin Cook's work. Unlike Cook, however, Wilson can tell a good story with real characters! Quinn Cleary, our lead, starts the book on a tour of The Ingraham, an elite medical school in Maryland and one that if you get accepted, foots the entire bill with room and board. The Ingraham only accepts 50 students a year, however, and Cleary needs to be accepted there as she cannot afford medical school otherwise. There is something fishy about The Ingraham, though at first we only get some hints. The school is in the middle of no-where, but has super hi-tech security, along with 10 foot barbed wire fencing and cameras everywhere.
The applicants are given a tour and they have to spend the night in the dorms; the following day they are given a long exam as the final step in the admission process. Flash forward a few months and Quinn is broken hearted, but not down and out. Quinn is a fun character- a strong woman in contrast to his typical 'damsel in distress'. She is on the wait-list at The Ingraham, with a back up to join the Navy to pay for med school. Her new buddy Tim (friend of a friend) who did get in to The Ingraham, concocts a plan to get Quinn in, and it works! School is hard, but Quinn crams and gets by...
We begin to suspect more and more that something is off about the school, however. The nightly 'bull sessions' among the students largely concern medical ethics, especially who should be given care given medical rationing. Quinn seems to be on the outs with the rest of the student's opinions, which are strangely uniform on the issue. We also learn that all the dorms are bugged, as are all the phones, etc. What exactly is going on at The Ingraham? As the plot unfolds, things go from bad to worse.
The Select is not a great work of art, but few thrillers hold up much past their sell date and this one does. I really liked how the author suggested that soon there would be Medicare for all and how the medical profession would have to adapt. If only we had a national, single payer insurance plan!! The Select feels fresh even today and moves smartly along. I can see why Wilson had a string of best sellers in the 1990s. 4 stars!!