Review for Do No Harm by Christina McDonald

 

Do No Harm by  Christina McDonald 

publication: February 16th 2021 by Gallery Books

Genre:  Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Suspense, Adult Fiction

 

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?

 

My Thoughts… Christina McDonald is amazing.    She writes books that grab the reader from the first work, pulls them as the story continues, and keeps them unable to stop reading.    Do No Harm is a story that tells of the horrors of the opioid crisis in the US.    The deaths of opioid addicts is something that every town is experiencing, even the little towns.  

Emma is facing the toughest obstacle of her life.   Her little boy, Josh, has been diagnosed with cancer and insurance will not cover all the costs.   The town comes together to help her family pay for the treatment, but it is not enough.    She is a doctor, she sees death daily, and knows what opioids can do if taken without medical direction.     The decisions she makes are not always the good choices, but are they the right choices?  

Emma’s husband, Nate, is a police officer that is working to bring down the opioid dealers.    He follows leads, puts together clues, knowing that he must solve this case to get the promotion that would earn him more money.  Money he needs to help pay for his son’s treatments.    I respected how hard he worked, how he had to make decisions based on the law, his heart, and what was best for his family.   

I am not sure I can convey how much I loved this story.   A doctors motto is Do No Harm but when faced with saving her son or keeping her motto it is not so much of a cut and dry choice.   

***Thank you Anne Jaconette at Gallery Books for a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

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Meet Christina McDonald…Christina McDonald is the USA Today bestselling author of Do No Harm, Behind Every Lie and The Night Olivia Fell (Simon & Schuster/Gallery Books), which has been optioned for television by a major Hollywood studio.

Her writing has been featured in The Sunday Times, Dublin, USAToday.com, and Expedia. Originally from Seattle, WA, she has a BA in Communications from the University of Washington and an MA in Journalism from the National University of Ireland Galway. She now lives in London, England with her husband, two sons, and their dog, Tango. She’s currently working on her next novel.

Christina enjoys reading, hiking and lifting weights at the gym. She always wanted to be a writer, and told her earliest stories to her two younger sisters, who were her first audience, cheerleaders and sounding board. She has a BA in Communications from the University of Washington, Seattle and an MA in Journalism from the National University of Ireland, Galway.

Going to college in Ireland wasn’t part of the master plan, but happened randomly when Christina went travelling and arrived completely jet lagged at Heathrow Airport in London, caught sight of the Aer Lingus desk, and spontaneously bought a ticket to Ireland. She loved it so much she went back the following year to study.

She is currently writing her next novel.