Review of Beat the Reaper, the Debut Novel of Josh Bazell

The first sign that Beat the Reaper, the debut novel of Josh Bazell, is going to be a good one is the advance reviews on the back. When best selling authors Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, and Harlan Coben all say a book is good, chances are they're right.

Beat the Reaper is the story of doctor Peter Brown, an intern at a horrible, rundown hospital in Manhattan who is as good at violence as he is at saving lives. One of those lives turns out to be that of mobster EddySquillante, who figures out that Brown in a previous life was known as Pietro "Bearclaw" Brnwna. Brnwna is a former hitman for the mob who entered the life after becoming close friends with the son of a mobster. His only rule is that the people he kills have to deserve it, a code he developed after his first killing, a revenge hit against the people who killed his grandparents. When his relationship with the mob family goes south in a particularly brutal way, Brown enters witness protection.

Mobster Eddy Squillante makes Brown a deal. If he makes sure that Squillante survives, nobody will find out where Brown is. Unfortunately for Dr. Brown, he works at the worst hospital in the city, Squillante's doctor is the worst possible man for the job, and during the course of the day he'll have to juggle a pharmaceutical rep, trying to keep from crashing from exhaustion, being high as a kite on prescriptionmeds, getting accidentally stabbed with a cocktail of pathogens, and even a sexual encounter with a random patient.

Beat the Reaper reads like what would happen if you tossed the television shows M*A*S*H, The Sopranos, House, E.R., and St. Elsewhere into a blender and added a bit of the book Catch 22 and added a pinch of Schindler's List for good measure. In his first novel, Josh Bazell manages to immediately capture a distinctive voice and tone that many authors have to develop over the course of several books. It is to Bazell's credit that the outlandish premise of a mobster turning MD never seems far fetched, nor do the many potentially ridiculous scenarios that crop up along the way. Bazell expertly shuffles from the present to the past to fill in Brown's backstory, unravelling the mystery of how Peter Brown came to be a hitman and why he left in a way that has you turning pages long after you know you should have put the book down to attend to your own life. JoshBazell, a doctor himself, peppers Beat the Reaper with a running commentary about medical procedures, hospitals, and the state of medicine that could only come from someone who has been there. The ending, which is best described as MacGyver meets Stephen King, is gruesomely satisfying.

Beat the Reaper is vulgar, profane, disgusting, hyper-violent, and darkly funny in all the best ways, making the book a compulsive page turner. It is one of the best debut suspense novels I have ever read, and certainly a candidate for one of the best mysteries of the year. Everyone but the easily offended should pick up a copy.