A Covid Odyssey Second Wave: A fictional COVID-19 pandemic story

by Graham Elder

Amazon bestseller featured as part of the Pandemic Collection in the Museum of Health Care at Kingston. Written during the pandemic, about the pandemic.
A physician’s harrowing intercontinental journey to uncover a dying father’s potential cure for Covid-19. Dr. Mark Spencer’s life has finally returned to some degree of pandemic normalcy when he receives a heart-breaking phone call from his mother, who lives in England. His estranged father, a well-known virologist, has Covid and is being admitted to hospital. That same day, a letter arrives in the mailbox claiming that his father has discovered a cure for Covid-19, but that, for reasons unclear, Mark must go to England to retrieve it. Deciding that the possibility of a cure outweighs all else, Mark embarks on a gut-wrenching transatlantic trek that will ultimately push his resilience to the very limit. Will Mark’s treacherous voyage deliver him in time to uncover his father’s secrets? Join Dr. Spencer as he once again tackles the pandemic landscape in A Covid Odyssey – Second Wave. Book two in the Amazon five-star A Covid Odyssey.

241 pages, Paperback

Published April 3, 2021

About the author

Dr. Graham Elder runs a busy surgical practice in Northern Ontario. He is the author of the bestselling medical fiction series A Covid Odyssey. Very outdoorsy, he enjoys Nordic skiing, snowshoeing, kayaking, biking, and hiking with his two massive dogs. Graham has been married thirty-four years and has two wonderful children.

Dr. Laura Cody is a forensic psychiatrist, fiction writer, and lover of books. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous publications. She is happiest hiking and adoring beautiful vistas and gorgeous sunsets. She loves chocolate (addiction-level), spicy food, and cats. Laura lives in New York with her three children, two cats, and one husband.

Laura and Graham met over a cadaver in the anatomy lab their first week of medical school and have been friends ever since. In 2015, they joined forces and twodocswriting.com was born. A forensic psychiatrist writing with an orthopedic surgeon? What devilish harm could come of that?

Reviews

[Marianne Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great adventure story with a thrilling plot set in November 2020. I felt as if I was on the sailing vessel the Rumrunner as Dr. Mark Spencer and his friend, Rufus attempted to navigate the storms on their journey from Montreal to England. Mark’s dementia-suffering father and a former world class virologist had apparently discovered the cure for COVID-19. He’d left it for Mark in his childhood home. With planes banned from England, this dangerous route was Mark’s only option. The author has well-drawn his troubled relationship with his father and realistically depicted his bond with his professional and spirited wife who is expecting their first child. By presenting various perspectives re the pandemic in conversations, etc with those he meets, he provides the reader with a good understanding and valuable information. I also appreciated some of the insightful quotations. They caused me to stop and reflect. I cite the following from the chapter-Day 3 at Sea re his friendship with Rufus. “From a conversation perspective, we had fully caught up by this point and had made that transition to maintaining a friendship. You could only relive the past so many times before it became stale.” The author has penned a satisfactory and realistic conclusion. He has also ended it on a clever hook that proves a transition to his novel in this series. A recommended read for sure.

[Bee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another page-turner!

Very enjoyable, fast-paced action, but also informative. I found it very easy to relate to the protagonist and the setting (Mind you, I’m a 40-something, married, McGill-educated physician named Mark working in SSM, with British parents, and a summer place next-door to the author and not far from Campement D’ors Island). That said, my wife enjoyed it just as much!