Slow Bleed: A Medical Thriller

The trauma and tragedy of the heroin in this book just keeps going and going and going. All the things she went through are not humanly possible to survive and then turn around and save the life of the very person causing all trauma- kidnapping, murder, extortion, not to mention totaling a car, falling down a steep embankment into an icy river in the middle of winter, going over a 40ft waterfall, scaling a rock wall to get out of the ravine, being choked by your best friend who also hits you on the head with a rock, and then be blown up by dynamite - all that and more and she lives to testify at trial! Really overdone with all that action!

This book was a fast read, although I was surprised – at the end – how little medicine had to do with the thrillers in this so-called “medical thriller.” It’s kind of like “Fatal Attraction” mixed with the plot from a 1980s Robin Cook thriller, but it moves quickly enough that you don’t notice any of the seams until the end.Jemma Sands is a busy, but content, wife, mother, and doctor until a surgery goes wrong. Although she did everything that she could, the patient’s baby was stillborn and the patient lost her uterus, impacting her future fertility. This sets a somewhat far-fetched revenge plot into motion, one that is heavily reliant on some unlikely connections between the patient and Jemma’s husband.With all this, Adler is a graceful writer and the flow of the book is strong, especially in the suspenseful final scenes. There were a couple of false notes (a single sex scene that seemed unnecessarily explicit given the overall tone of the book -- I'm a fan of explicit scenes, but this just seemed completely incongruous; a reference to 9/11 at the end that seemed to come completely out of left field), but I would consider checking out more books by this author.

This was a really good thriller but I questioned a few situations in this story. The only medical part of this story is that Jemma is a surgeon and she had to make a quick decision on the operating table in order to save the woman's life. Not only did she do it once, but twice. For someone stealing my husband and child, once is really too much.It's a fast-paced story with a few little twists that kept me interested. I would definitely read more of his work.

I wanted to like this book, but there was a disconnect. At the beginning we spend so much time learning the exact call out times, the exact response time just tons of extra information, but the further you get into the story the less information you get. The story starts with a surgeon being called out for an injury wreck. It turns and twists into an affair, a kidnapping, another affair, murder, theft, illegal drugs etc. the story just kept building and escalating, but then it truly was a roller coaster drop. All that build up ended quickly and without the story to support the visions. I could tell where the author was going, but wish the entire story had been concise.

I quite enjoyed this book...the story of a woman (an obstetrical surgeon) with everything: a loving husband, a beautiful child, satisfying work. However, all is not as it seems, and a string of unfortunate incidents overtake our heroine. The way she handles and overcomes the events, each of which could have destroyed a more fragile character, is the real story here.

A so-so book. While the plot line was interesting, the lead character’s evolution was poor. I’m tired of seeing the main character, Dr. Sands, act like an all-trusting idiot. Really? Give her more smarts and street cred. She acted more like the stereotypical damsel in distress than someone you hoped to have faith in getting out of her predicament. Her brain skills didn’t match her survival skills (which at times seemed far fetched). Is it a British thing or me - but the use of the word “darling” to describe your son and spouse was so 1940-ish.

I had purchased this book and then quit my Kindle. Now I am back on Kindle an found this book again. I started it and was surprised at how much I did like it. I got hooked right away. I have a child and I did loss him briefly so I did understand some of the shock and frustration the main character was going through. I think I is a brilliant book and am getting ready to enjoy his next one.

Setting one's characters in a hospital when the plot is not medical means this is not a medical thriller. The book starts slow. Things pick up, it was reasonably enjoyable, but the characters act unbelievably stupid at times. A few goofy mistakes, such as the wrong gender of a baby mentioned, or stating that looking to the right is a tell that someone is lying. (Looking to the left is, supposedly.) I read it through because I was interested enough to learn how things finally turned out, but nevertheless I found much of this book simply irritating for the reasons stated above.

Like others have said, there are many, many errors in this book. Spelling and grammar could be improved and I was surprised to see someone was mentioned in the acknowledgements as having corrected these already!Timings were inconsistent throughout. I won't repeat all the others mentioned in reviews I've read. Toppy (stupid name) who had undergone the most horrendous surgery and trauma was then admiring herself in her new lingerie "6 months after" yet shortly after it was only 3 months after.No mother in their right mind would leave a child of 6 alone in public places once, let alone repeatedly.Why didn't Jemma tell the police she'd spoken to Toppy's mum and that Toppy could swim? The storyline was more believable if the police continued to think she couldn't swim yet the reader knew she could so I found it very frustrating that Jemma wasn't telling the police this vital bit of information.It isn't all bad though. The book had the basis of a very good storyline. It needed a few good tweaks here and there, more attention to timings and grammar. However, I did like the actual plot, it is believable that a woman in the situation Toppy was in would react that way. I liked that as the story could have ended it took a turn and opened up again and then later it did that again.It would be a shame if the negative reviews put Tim Adler off writing because there is obviously a great storyteller in there. Just tidy up the errors and you'll have us all hooked and wanting more.

I don't think I have ever read a Medical Thriller before so I didn't know what to expect. I can tell you this now, Tim Adler has opened my eyes to a whole new genre with his fast paced, twisty turner thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat.It is hard to write this review without giving away any spoilers as just as you think you know the book is going left, Tim Adler, with a true talent for the art of deception, steers the book right. At times, it left me gripping my Kindle till my fingers turned white, as the tension ramped up. ir that, I applaud Mr Adler, as I am usually someone who takes pride in calling a twist before it happens.The protagonist, Jemma Sands, is a multi-layered character, a mum who has to juggle a tough job as a surgeon and a young son and disenchanted Husband. One professional call sends her life into a downward spiral with fatal consequences and she is soon chasing after a ghost in a desperate attempt to save her son. The book progresses at such a speed that I read it in ONE day!!The only downside for me is sometimes it felt like a little too much happened, but it was writing with such a passion an addictive style that I can overlook it and applaud Tim for what truly is a gripping first book! Don't miss this one!

I couldn't persevere with this, I'm afraid. I tried and got to 52% but called it a day then. It just got so farfetched that I couldn't be doing with another 50%, I'm afraid. We hadn't even got to the missing child we're told the book's about at 30+% into the book !!!I really had no time at all for the good Doctor Jemma who was an atrocious example for any parenting skills whatsoever !! She thinks nothing of her 5 year old son being "somewhere in the children's playground," the same son has a favourite toy that has a singed paw and nobody knows (or appears to care) how that happened and then she leaves him alone in a hospital cafeteria and wonders why he disappears !! The father was certainly no paragon of virtue.....he was a spiteful character, too and the more I read the name Toppy the more it grated....what a daft name !!I have never heard of a car's engine bobbling so was a bit lost there and also when one character meets a woman he points out there "was a faint whiff of death about her" and then we hear about a guy "wearing a big overcoat and a romantic-looking hat." Huh ???I couldn't reconcile this sentence at all-"I haven't been able to get in a car since what happened"....awful English !! Then he writes a chapter where Jemma visits her mother and of course she calls her Mum but so did the narrator !! That's just plain peculiar. We're told Jemma's suspended in September yet 4 months afterwards we're in December !! Wringer is not spelt ringer, nurses' station isn't nurse's station and Toppy and her mother relate the same incident totally differently. We read about 2 suspects being escorted from a flat when we'd only encountered one person in there........sigh.......my final straw came while Jemma was hunting for her son and trying to prove to the police that she knew who had him and that she wasn't dead yet she never told them the proof she had. It was just idiotic !!There were more errors in it but I'm too worn down now from trying to make sense of all the other points already mentioned to carry on relating them.

A great book with an interesting insight into medical procedures and psychology. I was initially convinced that this had been written by a doctor. Started extremely well, but the action and suspense was good throughout. There was always a new twist around the next corner. This is a rare type of book, one that is never boring. I am only surprised it did not attract more reviews. The strory centres around doctor Jemma Sands, a woman whose life will never be the same again, once she saves the life of a patient injured in a car accident. Her world soon collapses around her as her marriage, her love for her son and her very sanity are tested to the limit. A fast paced read.

Mixed feelings about this book. I was slightly irritated by the fact that, despite having had medical input, the lead character was throughout referred to as Doctor, when she was a surgeon and should be addressed as Miss or Mrs.As a mother myself also found it unlikely that she would leave her 6 year old boy alone in a hospital coffee shop. I persisted, and indeed found it readable at times, not least because I am on holiday this week near Nice, and travelled by Eurostar via Avignon, so this held a frisson for me, but the plot became more fantastical and the characters and their behaviour more poorly drawn until I got to the point where I thought "not another twist!" and just wanted to get to the end. I'm afraid I couldn't honestly say I enjoyed it, but I did find it an easy read.