The Doctor and Mr. Dylan - Softcover

Novak, Rick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 194185902X ISBN 13: 9781941859025

Publisher: Pegasusbooks, 2014

Synopsis

In this debut thriller, tragedies strike an anesthesiologist as he tries to start a new life with his son.
Dr. Nico Antone, an anesthesiologist at Stanford University, is married to Alexandra, a high-powered real estate agent obsessed with money. Their son, Johnny, an 11th-grader with immense potential, struggles to get the grades he'll need to attend an Ivy League college. After a screaming match with Alexandra, Nico moves himself and Johnny from Palo Alto, California, to his frozen childhood home of Hibbing, Minnesota. The move should help Johnny improve his grades and thus seem more attractive to universities, but Nico loves the freedom from his wife, too. Hibbing also happens to be the hometown of music icon Bob Dylan. Joining the hospital staff, Nico runs afoul of a grouchy nurse anesthetist calling himself Bobby Dylan, who plays Dylan songs twice a week in a bar called Heaven's Door. As Nico and Johnny settle in, their lives turn around; they even start dating the gorgeous mother/daughter pair of Lena and Echo Johnson. However, when Johnny accidentally impregnates Echo, the lives of the Hibbing transplants start to implode. In true page-turner fashion, first-time novelist Novak gets started by killing soulless Alexandra, which accelerates the downfall of his underdog protagonist now accused of murder. Dialogue is pitch-perfect, and the insults hurled between Nico and his wife are as hilarious as they are hurtful: "Are you my husband, Nico? Or my dependent?" The author's medical expertise proves central to the plot, and there are a few grisly moments, as when "dark blood percolated" from a patient's nostrils "like coffee grounds." Bob Dylan details add quirkiness to what might otherwise be a chilly revenge tale; we're told, for instance, that Dylan taught "every singer with a less-than-perfect voice...how to sneer and twist off syllables." Courtroom scenes toward the end crackle with energy, though one scene involving a snowmobile ties up a certain plot thread too neatly. By the end, Nico has rolled with a great many punches.
Nuanced characterization and crafty details help this debut soar. -- Kirkus Reviews

About this title

Review

"Dialogue is pitch-perfect...Bob Dylan details add quirkiness...Courtroom scenes toward the end crackle with energy...Nuanced characterization and crafty details help this debut soar."Kirkus Reviews
 "Rick Novak is an experienced anesthesiologist on the faculty of Stanford. This gives him a real edge in creating a murder mystery about what many think could be the perfect crime." San Francisco Book Review
 "This is a bang-up debut from a writer who understands timing and is able to deliver hairpin turns, particularly involving the courtroom drama" BookPleasures

Edition details

• Publisher: Pegasusbooks
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 194185902X
• ISBN 13: 9781941859025
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 290