Do No Harm is the sixth novel by British author, Jack Jordan.
“Your neighbour is dead, and we have your son.
You must kill Ahmed Shabir on the operating table in two days’ time.
If you repeat this to anyone, your son will die. If you are at any point discovered during your assignment, your son will die. If you fail to kill the patient, your son will die in his place.”
This is what cardiothoracic surgeon Anna Jones is told when she returns home from Redwood Hospital expecting to find her son Zack in the care of her neighbour. From the many surveillance measures in place to ensure she complies, as well as the timing (her son’s school on Easter break and he due to be away with his uncle, her ex-husband in Amsterdam) she understands this is a meticulously planned operation.
The fact of Shabir’s surgery has been kept very confidential: he is the Labour MP for Redwood, with a very strong anti-drug trafficking stance, and rumoured to be the next Labour leader. It goes against everything Anna believes, but the threat to her son’s life is real. Can she actually kill this man with half a dozen witnesses present and get away with it?
Over the last few months, cardiac nurse Margot Barnes‘s financial situation has become increasingly precarious: she owes money to her weed dealer and her landlady, has sold every item of value in her flat and is resorting to theft from her colleagues’ lockers. And she’s nine weeks pregnant. She is one of those present when Shabir receives his triple bypass.
DI Rachel Conaty is called to the discovery of a woman’s body in a well. She has clearly been murdered, quite recently, but just doesn’t fit the usual profile for such a violent death. Despite identification from fingerprints or dental records not being possible, she is recognised by locals as Paula Williams, and seen on CCTV walking Zack Jones home from school immediately before both disappear from view.
Rachel immediately fixates on the boy’s whereabouts, even though the manner of death fits with recent hits by local drug traffickers. Is her own history, the disappearance of her son, affecting her judgement?
Much more cannot be revealed without spoilers, and while some aspects of the story may require the reader to don their disbelief suspenders, the best advice is to strap them on and enjoy the ride right through to the nail-biting climax, and the chilling final chapters. And even if astute readers predict some of threads, watching how it all plays out is, nonetheless, so fascinating that this novel is unputdownable.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Australia.