Synopsis

Two patients are fighting for their lives. Nina, the hospital nurse, reads their notes:

Leroy: stab wound, gang member, police escort.
Dev: stomach pain, artist, distraught mother.

Nina is meant to treat all her patients equally: not to pick favourites, and not to judge. Except tonight, understaffed and overstretched, both patients need her. She makes a split-second choice – and leaves one man to die.

And that’s when she realises that on this busy hospital ward, no-one is exactly what they seem.

Review

The premise of The Good Patient is interesting; who doesn’t love a moral dilemma? Unfortunately it doesn’t quite live up to the promise.

The protagonist is a nurse and parts of the book felt poorly researched. Having had my own book thoroughly picked over by a medical professional, I recognised some of my own first draft mistakes (like flowers on a ward). A simple list of questions to someone who works in the industry would have solved this.

I also struggle with what the book is actually trying to be. It isn’t really a thriller, and it deals with NHS corruption, racism, gangs, mental health and identity, but at times provides more information than is needed, especially in the early chapters which are really slow.

Nina was vile so her arc was not a surprise at all, considering her disregard for the rules, her bizarre daily affirmation and general behaviour that would offend most nurses. We all love an unreliable narrator but it helps if they’re a little bit likeable so the reader roots for them.

Some of the characters are written well, especially Leroy and Balraj, and it feels like a good representation of that part of London. The book also leans towards telling rather than showing, which is a shame.

There are a couple of good twists, which redeems it slightly, but overall it veers off in too many directions and is too long.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Faber Books for my advanced copy. Opinions my own.