Slow burner of a medical thriller and mystery that asks some tough questions.

An unnamed Scottish doctor finds work at St. Luke's Hospital in east London. He's having a rough go as he is on probation after being suspended for his opioid addiction and theft of drugs. His daily efforts as a hospitalist are largely unrewarded as the sick get sicker and there's never enough money to help everyone. His small group of colleagues is made aware that something more sinister may actually be going on -- someone seems to be murdering the patients.

As much as I really wanted to like this novel, I found it hard to connect with the narrator because, not only was he unnamed, he was a drug addict unwilling to do the work to overcome his situation and largely not paying attention to most of what was going on around him. At times the story line seemed to skip and jump and go off on tangents that really slowed down the forward momentum of the doctor's search for the truth of what happened at St. Luke's. It was interesting, but also the fact that it was set in the 1999 kind of lessened my interest as well as that was a very long time ago. I found this sad and frustrating for the most part and the conclusion was very unsatisfying.

I love a good medical thriller and a complex plot with multidimensional characters and lots of interesting facts and details. This one fell a little short of being all that for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hanover Square Press for this e-book ARC to read and review.

Fast-paced and entertaining. A recommended purchase for collections where medical thrillers are popular.

I will admit by reading the synopsis of the book on Goodreads the book intrigued me. After reading the book, I felt that it was very drawn out from the beginning. The number of characters introduced in the beginning had names that were a little hard to pronounce, which took away my determination to read the book and visualize the read. The story was told as a narrative, without knowledge of who the narrator is. That’s a good idea for the book I thought.

This book has such a spooky vibe. As someone who works in a hospital, I really felt for the staff of St. Luke's. We are at a similar point right now - more sick patients than the current staff can safely handle... and maybe that is what scares me... how easily this book could morph into real life. I found myself reading this book in one sitting - absorbed into a world that is far too realistic!

Perfect for anyone who enjoys thrillers or works in the medical field.

Honestly this was one of the worst books I have ever read. There was no point to the book. It’s marketed as a medical thriller and that part is like 5% of the book. Honestly can’t keep writing because this book was so bad it makes me mad.

This one is a little tricky to rate because of its uniqueness. While it offered a very intriguing premise (mysterious deaths at hospital and possible serial killer) and very well-written prose, there was so much that was unnecessary to the story and took away from the plot itself.

The twist was very surprising and some of the relationships were very deep and complicated. I'm torn because so much was good, but I don't think it would be a hit with the majority of people.

I'd say it's worth a try if you go in with low expectations and the ending does pay off, but the ride is a little bumpy. Am I glad I read it? I think so, because I can see what the author was trying to accomplish and I really appreciate that...it just could have used a lot of editing.

Thank you so much to Harlequin Trade Publishing, Hanover Square Press for the gifted copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book is out now!

Taken at face value, this could have been a super read. You have a main character who is a doctor struggling with opioid addiction and a hospital with a serial killer on the loose. However the writing is incredibly dry, the narration is monotone, and the story is dragged out so long that you forget that you even care who the killer is. Told in the first person, I never felt any emotion coming from the main character whether at the prospect of spending his life in prison for murder or related to his drug addiction. Sadly, the best part of the book were the interludes between chapters where historical medical serial killers where summarized. But even those felt more like an attempt to stretch out the page count instead of providing an intermission from the "action" of the story. End result is a great plot but disappointing execution.

A young doctor returns to practice at a struggling hospital after being suspended for stealing drugs from his previous hospital. While there, it comes to light that someone is killing patients. This is a slow-paced book, not so much a mystery or suspense novel as a medical one. In addition to the writing, one of the things I liked most was the medical details. I will definitely look for more from this author. 4.5 stars rounded to 5.

A slow burn medical thriller with an unlikely protagonist-an unnamed narrator who is a physician addicted to opioids. Given a second chance after rehab in Scotland, he's now at a heaving hospital in London and struggling not only to keep up but also to keep clean. Luckily, his room mate George, a Labrador of an orthopod, the estimable Amelia, and his sorta girl Colette keep him going when things get bad. He's also got Felix, a privileged singer who has a raging infection from using bad needles, as a cautionary tale. But then someone starts killing patients and he's under the microscope. And then things get worse. No spoilers from me but his quest for the truth leads him down a dark path. I liked the blend of medicine (I learned a bit) and the periodic vignettes about health care killers though the ages (I learned a lot). While the narrator should not be sympathetic in the least, I found myself pulling for him even at his worst- because he knew it. He and the other characters are standout as is the atmosphere at the hospital. It's the little stuff too- the hotel near the airport, the flat near the trains, the sessions with his counselor. Great storytelling. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. I really enjoyed this one.

I love medical thrillers, so I was excited after reading the blurb. However, it didn't come close to meeting my expectations. The writing style never pulled me in. I know I'm in the minority, but this was a miss. The pace was off, and there was an overload of medical jargon. I was okay with that, but I understood it, but it felt unbalanced and could turn off readers. Characters didn't feel unique or jump off the page, so I was never invested in them, and I didn't care about the outcome.

I wanted to love this book but I ended up giving up at the 30% mark. It was too slow and didn’t hold my interest. I’m sure this will be a favorite for some but it just wasn’t the book for me.

WARNING: looks like it's unpopular opinion time again!!

Right... I certainly didn't expect this to happen when I first heard about Sometimes People Die. I don't read medical thrillers often enough, and the promise of a murder mystery with a medical angle sounded fantastic. I fully expected to have a brilliant time with this story, and it might just have been my fickle reading mood acting up again, but the fact is that somehow Sometimes People Die and me REALLY didn't get along. I'll try to explain briefly why below.

First of all, I do have to say that I still find the premise to be intriguing, and the story had a lot of potential. Sadly the story didn't exactly live up to expectations for me though. True, I've seen reviews mention that the second half of the book is a lot stronger, so I might have missed out there, but the fact remains that my struggles were such that I wasn't able to get even close to that redemption point. I think my main issue was with the writing style and tone, which felt rather pompous and like it was trying too hard to be literary fiction.

The story also read more like a rather dull and slow-paced medical memoir instead of a thriller, with an overdose of medical jargon and no solid plot to speak of. Sometimes People Die is supposed to be a medical thriller, so you do expect those medical terms, but the balance was most definitely lost here. I also wondered what the references to other medical 'crimes' added to the story? The lack of a cohesive plot was also a struggle, and then I'm not even talking about the considerably slow pace... The characters likewise felt rather flat and unmemorable.

Again, I've seen in other reviews that the second half is supposed to improve considerably as there is more focus on the murder mystery, but for me personally it was too much of a struggle to even get to the allegedly 'good' part. I simply clashed horribly with both the writing style and tone, the slow pace and the lack of a proper plot... And it wasn't the medical thriller I hoped it would be. I seem to be in the minority though, so don't give up on my account if you think this story is your cup of tea.

A great whodunnit premise, but too slow, too clunky, way too much medical jargon and characters that seem to run on anesthesia.

Sometimes People Die is thriller about an ex-doctor finding work again after losing his job for stealing opioids. The doctor takes the only job he can get at a declining hospital in London where he starts to notice a lot of strange things happen. The patients are dying from very obscure and rare illness. He starts to wonder if there's more to the story and start to dig around. This story has a great plot but it's very slow and full of tons of medical talk. I had a hard timing making myself i finished this because the medical dialogue felt very clunky to me. However the story does pick up towards the end and I became more interested. I do think if you like medical thrillers you will really enjoy this story.

The fact that I needed an urban dictionary just to read this novel completely sucked out any joy I could have had while reading, unfortunately. It simply wasn't the book for me, because it was a painfully slow and tedious read. I felt like a complete idiot having to stop and look up words like "knackered" to figure out what it meant. I'm college educated, and this book still managed to make me feel like an idiot reading it because I am not familiar with British words, or Celsius temperatures.

A young doctor has been caught stealing opioids at work. He now takes the only job he can find in a struggling and underfunded London hospital. As patients begin dying at an unusual rate, he realizes he’s not the only one with a secret.

This book had everything I love, plus a few things I don’t know I loved. I am really into first person narration, especially with a character like ours. Having been disgraced in the medical field, he is bitter, cynical, clever, and witty. While he remains unnamed, we feel like we know him intimately while we read the book. I loved all the medical facts and emergencies within the book. The historical portions were interesting, although I also could have done without. This was an amazing read!

“Medicine is a dark and a terrible knowledge, and sometimes it can be a lethal one.”

Sometimes People Die comes out 9/20.

DNF @ 32%. There's just too much medical jargon and not enough plot development. I will not be rating this book on Goodreads or any retailer sites. Thank you NetGalley, Hanover Square Press, and Simon Stephenson for the opportunity to read an advanced copy.

This book. WOW.
I'm not sure what I was thinking this book was going to be about...but it blew me away.
Set in 1999, our main character is given a second chance to work in the medical field after being caught stealing (and being addicted to) opioids. In his new hospital, the gritty and understaffed St. Luke's, a troubling amount of people are dying. And our former opioid addicted doctor is at the center of the investigation.
Told in a very matter of fact way - full of technical terms to remind you that a doctor is telling the story - we go on a journey to find the true medical serial killer and learn of others throughout history. There is disappointment and heartbreak sprinkled in for good measure
I found the addition of the historical serial killers to be fascinating, though I imagine some readers may not enjoy this.
This would be fans of medical mysteries.

This book was interesting and eye opening. I couldn't put it down. Would definitely recommend for anyone that enjoys medical thillers!

Unfortunately I couldn’t finish this book - it’s clear the author has medical knowledge, which is great, but the book felt a little too technical at times. It felt very slow and I wanted to get to at least 30%, but honestly I’ve been trying to read this for about three days now and haven’t been able to make much progress.

I’m giving it no rating//3 stars in the interest of fairness though; it seems like other people enjoyed it so maybe they’ll have a better time with it.