"Finding peace in the midst of the storms of life."
Reviewed by Viki Ferrell
Posted May 5, 2015
Inspirational Mystery | Suspense
Kelly Adkinson, an emergency room RN, wheels a gunshot
victim into the ER while being held at gunpoint herself.
The victim's brother is demanding that someone do
something
to save his brother. Dr. Mark Baker is the doctor on duty
that night, and his first thought is to find an exit, a
way
to escape and save himself. Kelly and Mark work together
in
an ER room to get IVs started on the victim and do CPR.
Both know that the gunshot victim is already dead, but
they
are trying to buy some time and figure out what to do to
save everyone's life. Police officer Ed Purvis bursts
through the door and shoots the man holding them at
gunpoint, but Purvis takes a bullet himself for his
efforts. Mark wheels the officer up to OR, but Purvis
doesn't make it.
After a long night of questioning from the police, Mark
and
Kelly are allowed to leave the hospital. The next day they
are told by investigators that the two brothers are part
of
the Zeta drug cartel that has infiltrated Texas from
Mexico. They are a deadly bunch and always seek revenge
when they lose one of their own. Mark and Kelly are now
targets of the cartel. Later they learn that two members
of
the OR staff have been shot and killed, so Mark and Kelly
team up to try to stay alive. Can they outmaneuver the
cartel before the police and DEA catch them? Mark and
Kelly
dated for a few months prior to this incident. Will this
experience bring them closer together or tear them apart?
Dr. Richard L. Mabry brings us another great inspirational
medical thriller with FATAL TRAUMA. I always enjoy his
novels. He begins FATAL TRAUMA with a scene of tragedy,
excitement and suspense and never lets up. It's a page
turner you just can't put down. Both characters are facing
the same predicament, but handle it very differently.
Kelly
is a Christian and has peace in her heart knowing that God
is ultimately in charge. Mark holds great fear in his
heart
and can't seem to find peace anywhere. He wrestles with
many questions about what kind of person he must be to
react to this situation as he is. This is a wonderful
story
about finding peace and letting God have control of your
life. "Inspirational" and "thriller" don't seem to go
together in the same sentence, but it's one of my favorite
genres, and Dr. Mabry certainly does it supreme justice.
SUMMARY
It began with Dr. Mark Baker facing a gunman who had
nothing
to lose. It could end with him behind bars. In the Emergency Room, Dr. Mark Baker and Nurse Kelly
Atkinson stand at the mercy of a gunman who declares, "If
he
dies, everyone here dies." At the end of the evening
three
men lie dead. One of them is a police officer Mark and a
surgeon, Dr. Anna King, couldn't save. The other two are
members of the feared Zeta drug cartel, and their threat
of
revenge puts the lives of Mark, Kelly, and others at
risk. It isn't long before the shootings begin, and Mark finds
himself under suspicion as a killer, yet still a
potential
victim. Because of Kelly's growing love for Mark, she is
hurt when he turns to his high school sweetheart, now an
attorney, for help. Who is the shooter? And can Mark find out before he
becomes
the next victim?
ExcerptDr. Mark Baker swept his straw-colored hair away from his
eyes, then wiped his forearm across his brow. He wished
the air-conditioning in the emergency room were better.
Patients might complain that it was cool, but if you were
hurrying from case to case for eight hours or more, it
was easy to work up a sweat. “Nobody move!” Mark spun toward the doors leading to the ER, where a
wild-eyed man pressed a pistol against a nurse’s head.
She pushed a wheelchair in which another man sat slumped
forward, his eyes closed, his arms crossed against his
bloody chest. Dark blood oozed from beneath his splayed
fingers and dropped in a slow stream, leaving a trail of
red droplets on the cream-colored tile. Behind them, Mark could see a hospital security guard
sprawled facedown and motionless on the floor, his gun
still in its holster, a crimson worm of blood oozing from
his head. Mark’s doctor’s mind automatically catalogued
the injury as a basilar skull fracture. Probably hit him
behind the ear with the gun barrel. The gunman was in his late twenties. His caramel-colored
skin was dotted with sweat. A scraggly moustache and
beard framed lips compressed almost to invisibility.
Straight, black hair, parted in the middle, topped a face
that displayed both fear and distrust. Every few seconds
he moved the barrel of the gun away from his hostage’s
temple long enough to wave it around, almost daring
anyone to come near him. The wounded man was a few years older than the gunman—
maybe in his thirties. His swarthy complexion was shading
into pallor. Greasy black hair fell helter-skelter over
his forehead. His face bore the stubble of several days’
worth of beard. “I mean it,” the gunman said. “Nobody move a muscle. My
brother needs help, and I’ll kill anyone who gets in the
way.” Mark’s immediate reaction was to look around for the
nearest exit, but the gunman’s next words made him freeze
before he could act. “You the doc?” Now the gun was pointed at him. Mark thought furiously of
ways to escape without being shot, but he discarded each
plan as fast as it crossed his mind. “Yeah, I’m the doc.” The gunman inclined his head toward the man in the
wheelchair. “He’s . . . he’s been shot.” He snatched two
ragged breaths. “I want you to fix him, pull him
through.” He punctuated his words with rapid gestures
from the pistol. “If he dies . . . if he dies, I’m going
to kill everyone in here.” The gunman turned back toward
his hostage. “Starting with her.” Mark’s eyes followed the gun as it traversed once more
from him to the nurse pushing the wheelchair. To this
point his attention had been focused on the gunman, but
now that he recognized the hostage, he knew the stakes
were even higher. Although her red hair was disheveled,
her normally fair skin flushed, there was no mistaking
the identity of the woman against whose head the gunman’s
pistol lay. The nurse was Kelly Atkinson—the woman Mark
was dating.
What do you think about this review?
Comments
1 comment posted.
Re: Finding peace in the midst of the storms of life.
Viki, thanks so much for the review, and for your nice words about Fatal
Trauma. Glad you enjoyed it. Hope the readers of Fresh Fiction will as well.
(Richard Mabry 3:56pm May 5, 2015)
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