THRESHOLD

by Daniel J. Waters

Dr. Johanna Roberson thinks she has uncovered a lucrative scam in medical devices at the hospital where she is training. What she has actually stumbled upon is something considerably more sinister and terrifying.A year shy of finishing her residency in Cardiac Surgery at Seattle’s world-famous Cutter Clinic, Johanna isn’t someone looking for trouble. When her friend and senior resident Dr. Michael Constantine tells Johanna that he suspects a fraudulent scheme to implant unneeded cardiac pacemakers and defibrillators, Johanna advises him against reporting his concerns. Shortly after confiding in her, Constantine disappears in a boating accident on Puget Sound and Johanna finds herself assigned to take his place on the pacemaker service assisting a garrulous cardiologist dubbed the “Afghan Flash”. Her suspicions quickly mount and when she tries to alert her physician superiors she finds them resistant to looking at anything that might taint the reputation of the Pacific Rim’s newest medical Mecca. Frustrated, Johanna reluctantly and somewhat accidentally involves her new and unanticipated suitor, Triplett “Trip” Collier, a handsome field agent with the Department of Homeland Security.After Johanna escapes a seemingly freak accident at Seattle’s iconic Space Needle, Collier begins to suspect that there may be more at stake than just dollars and medical devices. As the pair work to unravel the mystery, Johanna becomes the target of a freelance terrorist who is financed by a secret and surprising source. When he tracks her to an empty device laboratory deep within The Cutter Clinic, it’s left to Trip and Johanna to stop his murderous plans.

246 pages, Paperback

Published December 14, 2018

About the author

Daniel J. Waters is a native of southern NJ. He is a graduate of St. Joseph's College (PA) and the University of Medicine & Dentistry of NJ; he also holds a Graduate Certificate in Narrative Healthcare and a Master of Arts in Writing from the Thomas Wolfe Center for Narrative at Lenoir-Rhyne University (Asheville, NC). First published as a medical student in 1981 he has authored numerous stories and essays, two widely-quoted books of surgical advice, three poems, an award-winning play, and five novels. He retired in 2019 after performing open-heart surgery for thirty years and overseeing Graduate Medical Education programs for two decades. He was a Writing Fellow for the Health Professionals website Doximity where his "Op-Med" essays were widely read. He lives with his wife in Clear Lake, Iowa.

Reviews

[Shelly Alquist · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great thriller that provider scenarios that were a little too close to what could happen in real life!