Book Talk: Akron doctor writes medical thriller
“Fatal Rounds” is a fast-paced medical thriller by Dr. Carrie Rubin, an Akron physician.
The narrator is Liza Larkin, who is beginning her pathology residency at (fictional) Titus McCall Medical Center. Titus McCall was Liza’s second choice for a residency, but she picks it over her first choice because of some photos she’s putting in an album for her mother.
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Liza’s mother has schizophrenia and lives in a care facility, and Liza herself has schizoid personality disorder, meaning she is “emotionally detached” with “little desire to form social relationships.” Still, she loves her mother, and is perplexed when three of the photos, taken at different places, show a man she doesn’t know. Her mother sees the album and becomes distraught. She says that a man has been watching her through the bushes.
Through a reverse image search, Liza finds that the man is a surgeon at Titus McCall, so she forgoes her first-choice residency to keep an eye on Dr. Sam Donovan. Liza becomes convinced that Donovan is responsible for the recent death of a woman he’d operated on a year before. She also becomes convinced that he’s been following her, and so she begins following him. Using the pretext of an academic paper, she researches his surgical cases.
Liza does wonder if she’s becoming paranoid and showing symptoms of her mother’s condition, and so does her policewoman friend when Liza presents her with the evidence she’s collected. The reader, too, will wonder if Liza is delusional. Liza’s friend insists the evidence is circumstantial at best. Donovan begins to taunt her.
Rubin’s use of the unreliable narrator keeps things nicely off balance right through to the charged climax and unexpected final twist. “Fatal Rounds” combines a singular lead character with an impressively suspenseful plot.
“Fatal Rounds” (294 pages, softcover) costs $13.99 from Indigo Dot Press. Carrie Rubin also is the author of “Eating Bull,” about a Cleveland teenager goaded into filing a suit against a fast-food chain for causing his obesity, and of a three-book series about a medical student drawn into the supernatural.
‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’
Susan Boltz of Cuyahoga Falls contributed a story to “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Your 10 Keys to Happiness,” released in June. “The Grocery Store” is included in the first of 10 chapters, called “Count Your Blessings,” and is the reminiscence of a stressful pre-Thanksgiving shopping trip that becomes a lesson in gratitude. The book costs $14.95 from chickensoup.com.
Events
Loganberry Books (13015 Larchmere Blvd., Shaker Heights): Gabe Goldman signs his picture book “The Loving Wind,” 1 p.m. Sunday; Valencia Joy signs “I Met a Guy ... and Other Things You Can Only Discuss with Your SisterGirlfriends,” 2:30 p.m. Sunday. In a virtual event at 7 p.m. Thursday, Bill Schutt joins the Peculiar Book Club to talk about “Pump: A Natural History of the Heart”; register at loganberrybooks.com.
Fireside Book Shop (29 N. Franklin St., Chagrin Falls): Tossie Wiley Jr., author of “I Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb,” and Rita Wiley, author of “Prayer Fire: How to Ignite Your Prayer Life for Tangible Results,” sign their books from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday.
Cuyahoga County Public Library (South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch, 1876 S. Green Road, South Euclid): Shavonne J. Moore-Lobban discusses “The Black Woman’s Guide to Overcoming Domestic Violence,” 2 to 3 p.m. Sunday. From 7 to 8 p.m. Monday, Candice Carty-Williams talks about “People Person” with Abby L. Vandiver, whose “Where Wild Peaches Grow” was featured Sept. 11 in Book Talk. From 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Daniella Mestyanek Young and co-author Brandi Larsen discuss Mestyanek Young’s memoir “Uncultured.” Register at cuyahogalibrary.org.
Cleveland Museum of Natural History: In a virtual appearance at 7 p.m. Tuesday, the museum’s restoration ecologist David Kriska talks to Edwin Birnbaum about “Sacred Mountains of the World.” A $5 minimum donation is requested. Register at cmnh.org.
Cuyahoga County Public Library: In a virtual appearance from 7 to 8 p.m. Monday, Roshani Chokshi talks about her young adult novel (with Evelyn Skye and Sandhya and Menon) “Three Kisses, One Midnight,” and Jeffrey Breslow discusses “A Game Maker’s Life: A Hall of Fame Game Inventor and Executive Tells the Inside Story of the Toy Industry,” 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday. Register at cuyahogalibrary.org.
Hudson Library & Historical Society: NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg discusses “Dinners with Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships,” about her relationship with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in a virtual event at 7 p.m. Monday. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, Azar Nafisi talks about “Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times”; at 7 p.m. Thursday, Cleveland Clinic Chief Wellness Officer Michael Roizen talks about “The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow.” Register at hudsonlibrary.org.
Stow-Munroe Falls Public Library: Simon Winchester, author of “The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary,” in a virtual appearance from 2 to 3 p.m. Tuesday. Register at smfpl.org.
Willoughby Public Library (263 E. 305th St.): Canton Repository Managing Editor Rick Armon, author of “Ohio Breweries,” presents “History of Ohio Brewing,” 7 p.m. Tuesday. At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, D.M. Pulley (“The Lost Key”) begins a six-week “Building the Suspense” virtual writing workshop; register at we247.org.
Cuyahoga County Public Library (Parma-Powers branch, 6996 Powers Blvd.): Kristina McMorris talks about her novel “The Ways We Hide,” 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday. Register at cuyahogalibrary.org.
College of Wooster (McGaw Chapel, 303 E. University St., Wooster): Jason Reynolds, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and author (with Ibram X Kendi) of “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You,” gives the 2022 Peter Mortensen Lecture at 7 p.m. Thursday.
Cuyahoga County Public Library (Parma-Snow branch, 2121 Snow Road): Buzz Bissinger, author of “Friday Night Lights,” talks about “The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II,” 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday. Register at cuyahogalibrary.org.
Mac’s Backs (1820 Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights): Joe Meno signs his novel “Book of Extraordinary Tragedies” and Liz Breazeale signs “Extinction Event: Stories,” 7 p.m. Thursday. From 7 to 8 p.m. Friday, poets Jason Baldinger (“A Threadbare Universe”) and Karen Schubert (“The Geography of Lost Houses”) read from their work.
Reed Memorial Library (167 E. Main St., Ravenna): Joseph Sepesy talks about how ballroom dancing was therapeutic for his post traumatic stress disorder, and signs “Word Dances: A Collection of Verses and Thoughts about Ballroom Dancing,” 10 a.m. to noon Saturday.
Cleveland Public Library (Martin Luther King Jr. branch, 1962 Stokes Blvd.): Physician and activist Edgar B. Jackson Jr. launches his memoir “A Way Up and a Way Out,” in a conversation with the Rev. Dr. Otis Moss Jr., Pastor Emeritus of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, 1 p.m. Saturday. Register at cpl.org.
Rodman Library (215 E. Broadway St., Alliance): Alliance native Janice Hisle kicks off the 2022 Fogle Author Series, talking about “Submerged: Ryan Widmer, His Drowned Bride and the Justice System,” about the 2008 death of a Warren County woman, 2 p.m. Saturday.
Email information about books of local interest, and event notices at least two weeks in advance to BeaconBookTalk@gmail.com and bjnews@thebeaconjournal.com. Barbara McIntyre tweets at @BarbaraMcI.
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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron doctor writes medical thriller
