Dr. Matt Newman has everything. An amazing gift for healing. A good job he’s leaving for an even better one. A steady girlfriend who might be The One. Then one night as he leaves the hospital, he is attacked and stuffed into the trunk of his car by men who make their plans for him very clear. Matt pulls off an escape, only to sustain a head injury from a fall. When he wakes in the hospital, he finds a homicide detective waiting for him…and a chance to arrest him for murder. Innocent of the crime, but with no ability to even prove he’d been kidnapped, Matt turns to lawyer Sandra Murray for advice and representation. There are men still trying to kill him, an assistant DA with dreams of advancement, and a detective willing to do anything to see him behind bars. Luckily for him, his lawyer is also willing to move heaven and earth to keep him out from behind those bars.
The first thing that leaps off page one of Stress Test is the fact that this book is about a doctor. The description of the scene, the language used, and the complete acceptance that the reader is never going to be able to fully follow what’s happening is what makes it unusual. This isn’t a medical book a novelist researched. This is a book written by someone who can picture every tiny little detail of the medical procedures because he’s been there. The next thing you realize with a bit of shock is that while Dr. Mabry is clearly pulling on his own area of expertise to write the story, he is also a really, really good writer. We’ve all read a non-fiction book at some point that was fascinating, and the author’s passion for his subject shone…almost covering for the fact that the author didn’t know nearly as much about writing as he did about his topic. Stress Test is not that book. Dr. Mabry wields the written word with a surgeon’s precision.
The other thing that I realized with some surprise as I started to think about my review of Stress Test is the fact there are really only two main characters, Matt and Sandra. However, the supporting characters are drawn so complex and realistic I had started thinking of it as an ensemble cast. From Sandra’s assistant, to Matt’s doctor, to the mastermind and henchmen, each person provided another little story, and together they built a magnificent main story line.
The only thing I’m unsure of is whether Stress Test can really be called a mystery. Certainly, Matt spends most of the book racing to clear his name and discovering how and why he became a target. But enough information is given to the reader along the way that there isn’t much of a puzzle left to solve. It’s a brilliant plot device that actually adds to the suspense for the reader. You still don’t know if Matt and Sandra can put all the right pieces together fast enough. But it does leave you reaching for some term other than mystery to describe the book. I’m going to go with Crime Thriller. So don’t come expecting an old fashioned who dunnit or you’ll be a bit disappointed. But if you’re looking for suspense and intrigue, definitely check Stress Test out.
My thanks to BookSneeze for providing me with a copy of Stress Test in return for my honest opinion of the book.