Do No Harm
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
Named a Best Book of 2021 by Real Simple
From the USA TODAY bestselling author of Behind Every Lie and The Night Olivia Fell comes an unforgettable and heart-wrenching novel about the lengths one woman will go to save her son.
Emma loves her life. She’s the mother of a precocious kindergartener, married to her soulmate—a loyal and loving police detective—and has a rewarding career as a doctor at the local hospital.
But everything comes crashing down when her son, Josh, is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
Determined to save him, Emma makes the risky decision to sell opioids to fund the life-saving treatment he needs. But when somebody ends up dead, a lethal game of cat and mouse ensues, her own husband leading the chase. With her son’s life hanging in the balance, Emma is dragged into the dark world of drugs, lies, and murder. Will the truth catch up to her before she can save Josh?
A timely and moving exploration of a town gripped by the opioid epidemic, and featuring Christina McDonald’s signature “complex, emotionally intense” (Publishers Weekly) prose, Do No Harm examines whether the ends ever justify the means...even for a desperate mother.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this so-so domestic thriller from McDonald (Behind Every Lie), happily married physician Emma Sweeney and her police detective husband, Nate, dote on their precocious five-year-old son, Josh. Then Josh is diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia, and their insurance won't cover his costly treatment. After they're turned down for loans, Emma believes the only way to raise the cash is to sell opioids to addicts and forged prescription orders to drug dealers. Meanwhile, Nate, who knows nothing of Emma's scheme, volunteers to work with the DEA to find the source of opioids invading their town of Skamania, Wash., in the hope of a promotion. The weak plot spins on Emma's rationalization that in trying to save Josh she's also helping those who truly are in pain, but whose medication has been cut back because of government crackdowns. Emma's plan soon goes awry as the bodies pile up while her inexperience puts herself and her loved ones in danger. This well-meaning effort to highlight the opioid crisis spins out of control with clich s, shallow characters, and a preachy narrative. McDonald has done better.
