The Healing Knife
To Rachel Keyte death is the enemy. The early loss of her beloved father from heart failure ignited a single-minded determination in her: to save as many patients as she can, and to become a consultant before the age of forty. Everything else – friendship, love, empathy – is sacrificed to her obsession.
Now Rachel’s surgical skills are twelve-year-old Craig’s only hope for a normal life. His mother Eve holds a deep distrust of doctors, and her son is all she has. Reluctantly, she agrees for the operation to go ahead. But surgery is never predictable, nor is a devastated mother’s terrifying reaction. Eve, it seems, wants a life for a life...
The plot was woven like a tapestry, with layers and lifelike characters. Although a novel, it was not only suspenseful in parts, but uplifting to read, as it portrayed how obstacles can become healing in our lives and enable us to grow if we allow them to. I felt I had got to know the characters throughout the course of the book, and it was a clever way of demonstrating that when we are open minded to people towards whom we feel antipathy, it is possible to build something good that lifts us beyond ourselves. There was a lot to be taken from this book and in many varying ways. An excellent read! Elizabeth Wright
I am not a fast reader and am easily distracted, taking a couple of weeks to read a book at best. But I devoured this one in two evenings and a train journey. It was gripping. Rachel, the main character, intrigued me and I wanted to find out about the kind of life that could have shaped such a person. The reader is drawn quickly into the action and the first two parts are a page turner, leaving you slightly breathless as you wonder what’s going to happen next. The rest of the book cleverly delivers an apparent sub-plot which turns out to be more significant than ever and this keeps you reading, with a rare glimpse into the life of the protagonist after the action’s main conclusion. Best of all, Ms Russell has rustled up an ending that will both challenge and inspire. With a strong sense of place and a dynamic plot, there is a message about the power of failure when combined with an irresistible search for truth. I highly recommend The Healing Knife and will be looking out for other books by this author. Deborah Jenkins