The death of a nameless young woman in his emergency room spurs physician AJ Docker to seek answers. Together with his policeman friend and a police dog, he sets out on a quest for justice for his lost patient, but he discovers more questions than answers as he delves into the criminal world.
Last Patient of the Night is an action-packed thriller interspersed with lighthearted stories from the emergency room, featuring a cast of interesting characters.
Gary Gerlacher's experience as an emergency physician lends authenticity to the ER culture. His debut novel is the first in the AJ Docker series, and will leave you turning pages late into the night.
But the story is really about the main character, Doc, who is an ER doctor. While on a ski vacation, an inexperienced skier runs into a tree crushing his windpipe. Readers quickly understand that author Gary Gerlacker is an experience ER physician because he describes the detailed procedures for a tracheostomy Doc performs on the trail using a kit from his backpack. It’s an action-packed start, which doesn’t end until the last page.
The ER is filled with staff who are good at their jobs and have a great respect for Doc, even if they constantly take bets on the actions Doc will take. Doc’s adversary is a hospital administrator named VP Lou, who is concerned that the ER isn’t profitable and they need to increase their admissions rates. Sarcasm among the staff is unavoidable.
Doc’s best friends are police officer, Tom Nocal, and his K9, Banshee, a sixty-pound Belgian Malinois, who leaves wounds on criminals that Doc is used to stitching up.
A young woman comes to the Houston ER, where Doc works, with a fractured wrist. Doc thinks she is an abuse victim. But she leaves the ER without saying anything and is later found dead in the ER parking lot. Doc attends the autopsy and takes a picture of her unusual tattoo, through which he tracks her and finds her real identity. Without family, she is a dancer in a warehouse club owned by Ukrainian mobsters. Tom and Doc go to the club. After Doc pays for a woman’s “service,” to get her alone, she tells him that they may as well be slaves. Later, away from the club, she tells him of a club spinoff of call-girl services, which was another duty the victim filled. From there, Doc traces a blackmailing scheme paid to the Ukrainian mobsters through Bitcoin accounts, making them billions. Of course, in the end, Doc, Tom, and Banshee get the bad guys and also take care of sending VP Lou to jail.
This is the first of six books in the series. If you want a fast, action-packed read with interesting medical detail, this series is for you.
Will need to read. Sounds like some interesting twists.
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