Synopsis
He’s a doctor…but can you trust him?
With his marriage collapsing and grief-stricken following the death of his baby son, surgeon Dan Lewis is struggling to make sense of it all.
His work is his lifeline. But when he fixates on a child patient he thinks has a potentially lethal disease, no one believes the diagnosis. They all think he’s losing his mind.
When one of Dan’s critics is senselessly murdered and the evidence points to the damaged doctor as the prime suspect, his bad situation becomes desperate.
But there’s a dark secret linking the ill child and the murder victim. One that no one other than Dan can see.
Can he overcome his paralyzing despair to reveal the truth and clear himself?
And if he does, will he be in time to save an innocent child from a terrifying fate?
My Review
I have been a fan of Dylan Young and his work for quite a while now. I read the synopsis for ‘The Appointment’ and it certainly sounded like one hell of a read. I couldn’t wait to dive in and so I eagerly began to read. Blooming heck ‘The Appointment’ is most definitely one hell of a read and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, but more about that in a bit.
I wasn’t quite sure how to take Dan Lewis and I can’t say that I warmed to him much at all. He is a hospital doctor and at the start of the book, he is married and he has a young son. I really did feel for Dan because he suffers the tragedy that nobody should have to suffer- the death of a child in an accident. I felt for him because my brother died at 4 days old as a result of his illnesses, and I know how badly the death of my brother affected my parents then and now. It really does affect play tricks with your mind. That said, he does seem to fixate on a young boy, who attends one of his clinics. Dan spots something wrong in the boy’s eye but he is the only one who seems to be able to spot the problem. I wasn’t sure if Dan was imagining it and my mind kept changing as to what was real and what, if anything, was imaginary. Everybody else in the story seems to think that Dan is losing the plot and his cause isn’t helped when one of his colleagues is murdered. The evidence certainly points to Dan as being the main suspect. Is Dan guilty of the murder of his colleague? Is Dan imagining things that just aren’t there? Is Dan right in his diagnosis of the boy’s condition? Well for the answers to those questions and more you are just going to have to read the book for yourselves to find out was I am not going to tell you.
Oh. My. Goodness. Me. ‘The Appointment’ has to be one of my top reads of the year. I was hooked on this book from the moment I picked it up. I just couldn’t put it down. The book wasn’t exactly glued to my hand but it might as well have been because it travelled everywhere with me. I didn’t want to miss a single second of this book. In a sense, it was as if the book had developed a hold over me and I feared breaking that hold if I was to put the book to one side. The pages turned increasingly quickly as my desperation to unearth the truth steadily increased. I binge read the book over the course of a day. It seemed to take me no time at all to get to the end of the book, which I was so disappointed about. Don’t get me wrong I wasn’t disappointed with how the story ended but I was enjoying the author’s writing style, the characters and the storylines so much that I just wanted the book to continue for a lot longer. Reading this book definitely felt like a pleasure and not a chore.
‘The Appointment’ is extremely well written but then I wouldn’t expect anything else from Dylan Young. The story certainly started with a memorable and devastating event, which has ensured that this book will stay fresh in my mind for a very long time to come. Once Dylan had my attention, he just didn’t let it go nor did he let my attention wander, which is quite an achievement. I usually have the attention span of a gnat and I am easily distracted but not in this case. I think part of the reason why I became so wrapped up in the story was that it messed with my head somewhat. I wasn’t sure who or what to believe and all the way through the story I kept changing my mind as to what had really happened and who was really guilty before changing my mind back again. I had to concentrate very hard on the story and I had to keep reading to find out the truth. For me, ‘The Appointment’ is perfectly paced. It is a little slow to get going but that is down to the fact that the author needs to set the scene, develop the storylines and characters and create the right level of tension, which he does superbly.
Reading this book was very much like being on a scary and unpredictable rollercoaster ride with several twists and turns along the way- some of which I was expecting and some of which crept up on me and tapped me on the shoulder when I was least expecting it. I was left feeling as though I had been punched in the gut and had the breath knocked out of me. There were almost times when I had to read through my fingers as I feared what was going to happen next. I then gave myself a bit of a talking to and I realised that if I wanted to know how the story ended, then I had to pull up my big girl’s pants and continue reading.
In a nutshell, I absolutely, totally and utterly flipping well loved reading ‘The Appointment’. Dylan Young has done it again and written one hell of a book that is sure to soar to the top of the best sellers list and that is nothing less than he deserves. I would definitely recommend Dylan and his books to other readers. I can’t wait to read what he comes up with next. Here’s hoping that we don’t have too long to wait. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.
gingerbookgeek 