THE CURE FOR PAIN IS IN THE PAIN.

Pain can be numbed.

Grief requires smothering.

Behind every operating room door is a place built on trust. Strangers surrender consciousness and place their lives in the hands of medical professionals sworn to protect them.

But what if something else is awakened?

Nurse anesthetist Matthew Rix has devoted his career to helping patients safely drift into unconsciousness. Haunted by the devastating loss of his son, he now struggles to keep his collapsing marriage, damaged career, and growing dependence on the drugs he administers from consuming what remains of his life.

Then a brutal murder close to him rocks his small-town hospital.

As impossible events begin unfolding and the line between medicine and nightmare disappears, Matt becomes trapped in a web of grief, addiction, betrayal, obsession, and violence. Every answer uncovers a darker question, and every attempt to escape draws him closer to an evil far older than the hospital surrounding him.

Some wounds do not heal.

Some nightmares don’t end.

And some forms of evil do not announce themselves.

They quietly wait in the dark.

Drawing on author David M. Ward’s more than two decades of operating-room and trauma-care experience, Excruciating blends chilling medical realism with psychological suspense and supernatural horror.

Perfect for readers who enjoy dark medical thrillers, morally complex characters, occult suspense, and stories where science, suffering, and ancient evil collide.