Book picks similar to
The Magic Bullet by Harry Stein


fiction
mystery
medical-thriller
mystery-thriller

The Third Twin


Ken Follett - 1996
    Frightened by her bizarre discovery, she is determined to discover the truth at any cost—until she finds herself at the center of a scandal that could ruin her career. To fight the charges, Jeannie plunges into a maze of hidden evidence. With growing horror, she uncovers a cynical, far-reaching conspiracy involving disturbing genetic experiments and some of the most powerful men in America—men who will kill to keep their secrets concealed.

HardScape


Justin Scott - 1994
    Broke and looking for some excitement, Ben takes a job videotaping the adulterous goings-on in a bedroom in Jack and Rita Long's "castle." But he doesn't bargain on becoming embroiled in the murder of Rita Long's friend. A second murder closer to home propels Ben to embark on a new career as a neophyte detective and leads him to encounter answers that will put him in mortal danger.

The Dress Lodger


Sheri Holman - 1998
    A potter's assistant by day and dress lodger by night, Gustine sells herself for necessity in a rented gown, scrimping to feed and protect her only love: her fragile baby boy. She holds a glimmer of hope after meeting Dr. Henry Chiver, a prisoner of his own dark past. But in a world where suspicion of medicine runs rampant like a fever, these two lost souls will become irrevocably linked, as each crosses lines between rich and destitute, decorum and abandon, damnation and salvation. By turns tender and horrifying, The Dress Lodger is a captivating historical thriller charged with a distinctly modern voice. . . .

The Genesis Code


John Case - 1997
    His sister and young nephew have died in a fire in their home near Washington, D.C. Yet Lassiter soon learns a chilling fact: His loved ones were brutally murdered before the blaze was set. . . .The mysterious suspect's identity only raises more questions. Then Lassiter uncovers another crime--another innocent mother and child murdered. The more he unearths, the larger the web of conspiracy grows, as his search for answers leads him on a dangerous international chase toward a truth that will shock him--and the world--to the very bone. . . .From the Paperback edition.

The Simple Truth


David Baldacci - 1998
    But when his memory is jogged by a letter from the army, he has a shocking realization: he's not guilty. From prison, Rufus secretly files an appeal with the Supreme Court, unaware that the real killers are onto him. But the long-time convict knows he's running out of time when his lawyer and the Supreme Court clerk--the first person to see Rufus's appeal--are murdered. Escaping with his brother's help, Rufus must now elude capture long enough to expose a shocking cover-up and save his own life.

The Devil's Alternative


Frederick Forsyth - 1979
    The Soviets are forced to pin their hopes for survival on the U.S. But as the KGB and the CIA watch in horror, the rescue of a Ukrainian freedom fighter from the Black Sea unleashes savagery that endangers peace--and plunges leaders from Washington to Moscow into a web of overwhelming intrigue, terror, and suspense. Only two lovers can save the world from nuclear  destruction. Yet every way out means certain death, and the countdown has already begun.

Even Steven


John Gilstrap - 2000
    But when one of the boy's kidnappers comes out of the brush waving a gun, Bobby is forced to react. In one chaotic, explosive moment, the predator is brutally murdered. But was he a criminal -- or a cop? With a vicious crime ring closing in on them, and unsure of whom to trust, Bobby and Susan desperately plunge into the heart of danger to save the boy -- and themselves. John Gilstrap's Even Steven enhances his reputation as an ingenious and innovative contemporary thriller writer.

Games of the Hangman


Victor O'Reilly - 1991
    When photographer Hugo Fitzduane finds a hanged body, it's ruled a suicide. But when the body of a terrorist is found with the same strange tattoo, Fitzduane is plunged into a firestorm of violence as he tries to expose the link.

The Last Templar


Raymond Khoury - 2005
    The ship vanishes without a trace.In present day Manhattan, four masked horsemen dressed as Templar Knights emerge from Central Park and ride up the Fifth Avenue steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art during the blacktie opening of a Treasures of the Vatican exhibit. Storming through the crowds, the horsemen brutally attack anyone standing between them and their prize. Attending the gala, archaeologist Tess Chaykin watches in silent terror as the leader of the horsemen hones in on one piece in particular, a strange geared device. He utters a few cryptic Latin words as he takes hold of it with reverence before leading the horsemen out and disappearing into the night.In the aftermath, an FBI investigation is led by anti-terrorist specialist Sean Reilly. Soon, he and Tess are drawn into the dark, hidden history of the crusading Knights, plunging them into a deadly game of cat and mouse with ruthless killers as they race across three continents to recover the lost secret of the Templars.

The Doll's House


Evelyn Anthony - 1992
    Rosa Bennett, a rising star in the Foreign Service, takes up residence in the Doll's House, a luxury hotel in the English countryside, in order to investigate the actions of former spy Harry Oakham, the hotel's new manager.

The Best of Sherlock Holmes


Arthur Conan Doyle - 1977
    Basing his selection around the author's own twelve personal favourites, David Stuart Davies has added a further eight sparkling stories to Conan Doyle's ' Baker Street Dozen', creating a unique volume which distils the pure essence of the world's most famous detective.

Trust No One


Gregg Andrew Hurwitz - 2008
    But all of that shatters when, in the middle of the night, a SWAT team bursts into his apartment, grabs him and drags him to a waiting helicopter. A terrorist-- someone Nick has never heard of--has seized control of a nuclear reactor, threatening to blow it up. And the only person he'll talk to is Nick, promising to tell Nick the truth behind the events that shattered his life twenty years ago. At seventeen years old, Nick Horrigan made a deadly mistake--one that cost his stepfather his life, endangered his mother, and sent him into hiding for years. Now, what Nick discovers in that nuclear plant leaves him with only two choices--to start running again, or to fight and finally uncover the secrets that have held him hostage all these years. As Nick peels back layer after layer of lies and deception, buffeted between the buried horrors of the past and the deadly intrigues of the present, he finds his own life--and the lives of nearly everyone he loves--at risk. And the only thing guiding him through this deadly labyrinth are his stepfather's dying words: TRUST NO ONE. Acclaimed for years by both critics and his peers as one of the finest thriller writers today, Gregg Hurwitz has lived up to all the accolades and expectations with "Trust No One," an electrifying and compelling novel that will be remembered for years to come.

Error in Diagnosis


Mason Lucas - 2015
    It begins with memory loss and confusion and ends with the patient falling into a coma. Medical professionals are at a loss for the cause, but one thing remains constant: All of the victims are pregnant.Called in to consult on the case of his best friend’s wife, neurologist Jack Wyatt has never seen anything like it. Now, with the nation on the brink of panic, Jack and his colleagues are in race against time to find a cure.The disease they are calling Gestational Neuropathic Syndrome (GNS) is spreading. Patients are dying—and no one can guess what will happen next…

Rage Therapy


Daniel Kalla - 2006
    Stanley Kolberg was not just murdered. His lifeless body was battered and broken almost beyond recognition, as though his unknown killer had been driven by a ferocious rage that had exploded madly out of control. As far as the Seattle police are concerned, there is no shortage of suspects. A distinguished psychiatrist, Kolberg specialized in anger management and often treated violent offenders with severe psychiatric disorders. His client list is a virtual lineup of sociopaths, psychotics, and convicted murderers, any one of whom might have unleashed their homicidal fury on the doctor. For Dr. Joel Ashman, who consults as a profiler for Seattle Homicide, the shocking crime strikes particularly close to home. Not only was the victim a fellow psychiatrist, but Kolberg was also his former partner and mentor--he was practically a second father to Joel, who soon finds himself the target of a faceless stalker as well. Who killed Stanley Kolberg and why? The answers lie hidden in a lurid underworld of depraved sex and violence--and in the tortured past of one disturbed young woman.

Omega


Patrick Lynch - 1997
    A fatal bacteria is spreading out of control. No drug known to modern medicine can stop it ... a genetically engineered antibiotic that could be mankind's only prayer. A phantom drug that may not even exist. The last hope for respected surgeon Marcus Ford, whose thirteen-year-old-daughter lies deathly ill. A relentlessly suspenseful medical thriller that has already begun to come true ...