Lie Still: A Novel of Suspense

David Farris

Oct 2009 · Harper Collins

About this ebook

A prominent physician debuts as a gifted storyteller in Lie Still, a dazzlingly suspenseful and compulsively readable trip through the dark underbelly of the OR -- where reputations, careers, and lives are on the line.

In a sleepy, small-town Arizona hospital, a thirteen-year-old boy lies in a coma after inexplicably suffering a cardiac arrest. His doctors are perplexed. Although emotionally disturbed Henry Rojelio was a frequent visitor to the emergency room -- often for bouts of asthma, but usually just for attention -- no one ever anticipated a battle with death.

Surgical resident Malcolm Ishmail began his medical career months before at a busy Phoenix hospital -- a far cry from the small ER deep in the silent heart of the desert, where Henry Rojelio lies. There, Malcolm fell into a secret, exhausting affair with one of his professors, Dr. Mimi Lyle, a beautiful, charismatic brain surgeon who had subtle difficulties in the operating room. In a moment of weakness "Dreamy Mimi" confessed to him her failings as a neurosurgeon; Malcolm reported her to his superiors . . . and promptly lost his job.

Now, miles away from Phoenix, Dr. Ishmail struggles to save his young asthmatic patient's life and his future as a surgeon. And with little time and few clues to the cause of Henry Rojelio's sudden collapse, the impressionable doctor wonders whether his former lover may have exacted a disturbing revenge. Rich in medical detail and written with stylish, razor-sharp action and dialogue, Lie Still is a gripping, emotional drama of human failings and devastating consequences that marks the debut of a remarkable new voice.

About the author

David Farris, now a pediatric anesthesiologist, has spent more than twenty years practicing obstetrics, emergency medicine, pediatric critical care, and anesthesia for high-acuity surgery. He received his medical degree from the University of California, San Diego. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his physician-wife and their two sons, and devotes his practice primarily to infants' and children's heart surgery.