Dissection

By: Dr. Cristina LePort

Narrated by: Richard Salem

DC heart surgeon Dr. Steven Leeds is suddenly besieged by a handful of immensely complicated heart attack and stroke cases, all caused by a rare arterial injury—a dissection. And all the victims have first received innocuous-looking cards announcing: “Your heart attack/stroke will arrive within one hour!”

Private detective Kirk Miner and FBI agent Jack Mulville investigate, and they immediately suspect Leeds’ former lover, Dr. Silvana Moretti, a brilliant research scientist who harbors a grudge against all the victims.

Then when prominent people in the US government begin to receive these same threatening cards and almost immediately experience these same deadly cardiac emergencies, it falls to the unlikely team of three—the headstrong FBI agent, the gifted private investigator, and the brilliant but conflicted heart surgeon—to find the actual perpetrators and to snuff out a catastrophic plot that only the medically astute can divine.

Dr. Cristina LePort’s story is vaguely reminiscent of the artfully nightmarish scenarios in Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp novels, combined with the fast-paced tempo of Robin Cook’s medical thrillers. Her Dissection features riveting suspense, action-packed climaxes, and thoughtful character development, set against a believable backdrop of medical science informed by her long career as a cardiologist. Her style, though accessible, is more sophisticated than superficial, and with strong protagonists on both sides of the gender divide, appeals to both male and female listeners.

Dissection is a taut thriller with complex characters that combines cutting-edge medical technology with horrific yet still believable political consequences. It may well be the best medical thriller you’ve ever listened to.

©2022 Dr. Cristina LePort (P)2022 Bancroft Press

Chilling Scenario

Although a story about an Iran-based terrorist group that uses a subverted biological weapon to threaten the US is timely, this effort falls short. The characters are archetypes, not flesh & blood people—either evil or good. The dialogue is neither clever nor gritty. Everything (characters, settings) is in service of pushing the plot line forward. And, the narrator contributed to the sense that this is an amateur. He has a great voice but his characterizations were over the top—they almost made me laugh (eg, gruff FBI guy). Female characters and children were almost painful. The author has potential, especially for telling stories with medical content. But she needs some guidance to add subtlety, character development, and originality to her next effort. And the narrator needs to do some homework. One of the main characters’ beautiful Italian name was pronounced throughout in such an Americanized way that I winced when I heard it.

Amazing medical thriller

Just finished listening to this amazing medical thriller. I highly recommend and can’t wait to see the movie!!

Great intensity.

Many great characters keep the story moving forward as others changed due to a medical illness.

Had potential

This book had potential of being great, but got very long-winded, and took too long to develop.

Get this book!

I loved this book. It is as good as my favorite author Robin Cook who has been my favourite author for a very long time. I think that the writing was wonderful. I only read really good books in one sitting. This time it was read to me in one lay down.