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A young doctor who’s back to practicing after being suspended for stealing and taking opioids finds himself only able to get a job at an undesirable hospital in east London. St. Luke’s is underfunded, understaffed and in a bad neighborhood.
The narrator describes the patients who frequent the hospital, the other doctors, the nurses, the staff (particularly the older men who transport patients). And, of course, he talks about the cases they see regularly. That alone, shared in his dryly funny but demoralized voice, is worth reading this book. I found his observations (clearly based on the author’s experiences as a doctor) to be quite entertaining as well as informative. I could have just kept on reading about the crazy stuff that would happen.
But… this book is also (supposedly primarily) a murder mystery. Someone is killing patients. The narrator notices that some patients are dying who really shouldn’t have. Sure, they may be old or otherwise infirm, but they should have left the hospital after improving. But he found himself running or participating in a “resus” and then declaring them dead. Green line on the monitor is flat, and “flat is asystole, and asystole is death.” Repeat ad nauseam.
Finally, the hospital notices the numbers are unusual, and the police get involved. The narrator is a suspect. And then more are noticed, and he is not, for various reasons.
Who is doing the killing? It’s someone who knows what they’re doing, and the tools are easily at hand.
Sometimes People Die is a fairly interesting murder mystery, in terms of the identity of the perpetrator finally being revealed. But it really is more an examination of the difficult lives of medical personnel who work in hospitals such as the one described in this book. How do they keep going, and what does the experience do to them? (It’s probably revealing to learn that the author is no longer practicing as a doctor; he’s a full-time writer and screenwriter.)
If you like a little dark medical humor and are fascinated by health care (as I am), this book is a winner. I loved it.
Rated: Moderate. Profanity includes 5 uses of strong language, around 10 instances of moderate profanity, about 5 uses of mild language, and a couple of instances of the name of Deity in vain, as well as 4 instances of British (bl-) profanity. Sexual content includes kissing and brief sex scenes with little detail, as well as some just referenced. Violence includes references to murders, mostly performed with medications. One suicide.
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