Sometimes People Die: A SUNDAY TIMES Crime Book of the Month and NEW YORK TIMES Editor Pick

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As a nurse there are certain maxims which run true, including that just sometimes people die, not matter what you could have done, or did do, the march of death is inevitable. And this goes double for our care of the elderly patients, which is so vividly realised in this novel, it is seen as a less than stellar career choice for the medical professional and a thankless task to navigate.

SUMMARY: Scottish physician became addicted to pain pills after an accident. He gets a second chance at a busy hospital in London. Soon after he begins working there, the hospital falls under scrutiny for a higher percentage of deaths, leading to a police investigation and the eventual capture of one of his coworkers who confesses to one of the (16?) patient murders. Simon is from Edinburgh in Scotland, but now lives in Los Angeles having had stopovers along the way in London and San Francisco. Just as I consider giving up it starts to get interesting… finally! The pace starts to go above that of a country stroll though it’s never brisk partly because of the narrator's delivery. Suspicions start to fall in several places, there’s a tragedy and some rather good plot twists you do not expect. Unfortunately, you have to be very patient for those to arrive. There is a good premise in here but initially it’s well concealed under a plethora of medical jargon.I thoroughly enjoyed this - despite the trauma of a trip down memory lane from having worked in British hospitals myself only a few years before the time it’s set. The writing is brilliant, and the observations astute - only actual doctors know the pressures that distort your thinking to the point where incarceration can seem preferable to going to work: “I found myself inevitably thinking again about what my life in prison might be like. I did not seem likely to do well there, but consoled myself that perhaps I could ingratiate myself to the other inmates by providing them medical care. Beyond that, the sole upside I could think of was that I would at least no longer have to work nights.” Our unnamed lead character is a Scottish doctor. He's recently returned to medicine after serving a suspension for stealing opioids from his previous hospital. The only job he can find is at St Luke's Hospital in London; a struggling place, which is understaffed with overworked medics. It's a place that welcomes any doctor, no matter what's happened in their past. There is a big mystery running through this book – who is responsible for the unexplained deaths/murders? I love a puzzle. Suspicion is of course cast on everyone as the story twists and turns toward its conclusion. It was certainly an end I didn’t see coming. Like Stephenson himself, his main protagonist is a Scot who moves to London to work. Hopefully that’s where the similarities end. Those who fear the hospital should stay far away from this book! I’m not a fan of hospitals, but statistically speaking, the chances of having an “angel of death” taking care of me in a hospital are pretty small.

I thank the publisher and Netgalley for the advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review. Sometimes People Die blew me away and cost me a night's sleep as I read it on tenterhooks. Both a revelatory glimpse into the rigours and strains of medicine and a thrilling piece of entertainment, this astounding novel announces the arrival of a new Michael Crichton for the zeitgeist' Ken Bruen, author of The Guards Simon has worked as a writer on various films including Pixar’s LUCA, PADDINGTON 2, and his own THE ELECTRICAL LIFE OF LOUIS WAIN. Like every other screenwriter in Hollywood, he has a bottom drawer full of unproduced scripts and forgotten promises. So it goes.Author Simon Stephenson was a physician who turned into a screenplay writer, and now author of “Sometimes People Die”. Our narrator informs us, at a hospital, people die. Some deaths garner a shrug, some a head shake. Not all are alarming, especially if the person was very ill, elderly, or frail. But when statistically unlikely “early” deaths occur, the hospital takes note. This is not for everyone. If you liked MASH (dark medical humor) you will like this one. Because its voice is BETTER than the dialogue of those doctor to doctor situations. Very sharp, crux, savvy writing. And he knows grief. From nearly all views, he does. The pace was steady but there was a little too much hospital jargon for my liking in the first half of the book. The characters were a little flat. There's lots of medical murders and murderers. There's historical parts that were quite interesting to read about, they covered doctors who were also killers. I did not see the twist coming. I’m not sure there is a lot more I can say without giving away spoilers. Overall, I really enjoyed this novel. It’s unique – reading almost like the protagonist’s diary if makes sense. Well, I recommend if you don't mind reading about addicts. That's embedded. But it is probably closest to the truth of some particular experiences that I have come across in out of 100's of these moderns. This one isn't obnoxious people either. You should know that. In fact, 75% of them are wonderful in the breech humans.

Away from work I mostly like to ride my bike in nearby Griffith Park. in hope of encountering my neighbor the mountain lion. I’m also a fan of animals (petting them not eating them,) cakes (eating them not petting them), and soccer/football. The surrounding cast of characters are equally intriguing, especially Felix. I wanted to give George a big hug. Wow. This is an intriguing idea for a novel: a drug addled doctor finds himself in an underfunded/staffed hospitals where there is a growing list of suspicious deaths. This is a mystery of who is killing the patients; it’s a suspense in that our narrator, the drug addled physician is the one we are relying on to figure it out. Can the narrator keep clean and sus it out? Thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing, the author and NetGalley for the ARC. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review* I have written two other books. ‘Set My Heart To Five’ came out in 2020. The Washington Post review said that I might be ‘Vonnegut’s first true protege’. You’d better believe I have been dining out on that ever since, and will be for the rest of my days.It also puts you through all the emotions a little. One moment there is tension and then, especially at one scene in particular, I was fighting tears. The year is 1999. Returning to practice after a suspension for stealing opioids, a young Scottish doctor takes the only job he can find: a post as a senior house officer in the struggling east London hospital of St Luke’s. Which of the medical professionals our protagonist has encountered is behind the murders? And can our unnamed narrator’s version of the events be trusted? If you open this book thinking it’s a medical thriller—which is how it’s marketed—then you’ll be terribly disappointed. But take it on its own terms and it is one of the most evocative and heart-rendering tales you’ll have encountered in quite a while. A young Scottish doctor, caught stealing and using opioids, is deemed fit to return to practice and lands in St. Luke’s—one of London’s roughest hospitals and a place that’s desperately in need of staff. Author Stephenson was trained as a doctor, and this book goes deeply—and fascinatingly—into life in the hospital. Add to this a great cast of characters, including George, an orthopedist, rugby player, and teddy bear of a man who rooms with our protagonist, helping to keep him grounded.