Moral injuries A novel

Doctors Olivia, Laura, and Anjali have been best friends since their medical school days in late-1990s England, supporting each other through grueling classes, familial loss, and a drug-fueled party that ends in tragedy. The trio have kept the secret of what really happened at that party for 25 years. Now, in 2024, Olivia is a gifted heart surgeon and mother of two teenagers with her med-school love; Laura is a trauma specialist and single mother who seeks solace in one-night stands; and Anjali is a GP who, after surviving an abusive relationship with a man, has found love with another female doctor, and the pair hope to adopt a child. When Olivia's daughter and Laura's son flee a party after a teen takes a near-fatal fall, the past floods back to the trio, bringing old secrets and betrayals to the surface and forcing them to confront the truth about the fatal party and their children's involvement in this new tragedy. Gripping, introspective, and packed with as much drama as a whole season of Grey's Anatomy.

In the propulsive if schematic latest from Watson (The Language of Kindness), three female doctors in present-day London find their friendship and their ethics tested when they're confronted with a secret from their past. Olivia, the perfectionist, is a cardiothoracic surgeon, while Laura works as a doctor on a helicopter rescue team and Anjali is a general practitioner. When Olivia's teenage daughter, Freya, attends a party with Laura's son, Rudy, another boy named Joe Duggard falls down a flight of stairs and sustains brain damage. With Joe in a coma, the women try to guard their children's futures. Laura's position on the hospital's ethics committee becomes particularly thorny, as she's empowered to determine whether Joe will be kept on life support or the children will face involuntary manslaughter charges. The situation echoes a drug-fueled party during the women's med school days, when a classmate was accidentally killed during a brawl and they fled the scene to avoid being implicated, and they argue now over who was at fault. Watson's tendency to withhold key information can feel gimmicky, but she shines in her portrayal of medicine as an imperfect blend of art, science, and emotion. Fans of medical fiction will admire this. Agent: Grainne Fox, UTA. (June)