Critical Condition is a medical thriller that tells the story of Dr Shannon Frasier and her sister Megan as they inadvertently get tangled in what becomes a murder investigation. The story opens with Dr Frasier and guests gathered at her home for a dinner party that is tragically interrupted when a gunshot victim ends up fighting for his life on her front lawn. Dr Frasier, who is still trying to deal with making peace with a similar incident in her past, is then thrown into an tangled and complicated investigation that tests her personally, professionally, and spiritually.
Her sister Megan, who has been in and out of Shannon's life with troubles of her own, shows up just in time to be implicated as well, and brings with her a fair amount of questions, confusion, and mystery surrounding her involvement in much of the story that unfolds. This book was fast paced, and a quick read. It grabbed my attention right from the start (opening with a man dying of a gunshot wound will tend to do that) and it didn't take me long at all to finish reading it. Unfortunately, it didn't really hold my attention the whole way through, and I ultimately ended up with mixed feelings.
The kernel of the story was good... a murder mystery with plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing. But with the exception of Megan, the characters felt sort of flat and underdeveloped to me. The ending was rushed, tying everything up extremely abruptly, and it made me feel somewhat cheated and confused. One of the subplots involved Dr Frasier and her will-she or won't-she commit to her "almost-fiance's" offer of marriage. When the answer was finally revealed, at the very end of the story, I found that I didn't much care, and had sort of wished she'd chosen something else.
This was not a bad book... as I said the story was mostly good, and I'd actually be interested in reading more by Mabry to see if different characters might grab me a bit more than Shannon Frasier.
I received this book for free from the BookLook Bloggers program in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
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