In Carrie Rubin's latest medical thriller, Fatal Rounds (Indigo Dot Press (2022), recent medical school grad, Liza Larkin is starting her pathology internship at Titus McCall, a renowned hospital though her #2 choice. For Liza, a brilliant and eclectic doctor with a brain like no other, she could have gone to her #1, but picked this one because of the popular and successful Dr. Sam Donovan. She's not stalking him. In fact, she thinks he's stalking her and by working with him, hopes to find out why. With her father dead, her mother schizophrenic, and her brother mildly depressed, it falls to Liza--with her superior intellect, her clever ability to connect dots, and her own considerable mental issues bordering on autism to be the strength behind her family. That means stopping anyone who endangers her mother or brother. Because of her own medical history, those who might support her are reluctant to do so, but as she finds more facts that can't be denied, ugly truths no one wants revealed begin to take shape. For Liza, the threats that brings to her have no weight against protecting those who need her.

I've read many of Carrie Rubin's books--The Cruise Ship Lost My Daughter and The Bone Curse (click for reviews) for example. Being a medical doctor herself, developing a credible plot for a medical thriller is second nature. If this is your preferred genre, do yourself a favor and start reading her books. For this one, here are a few lines that stick with me:

"...I am indeed an island. Everyone else is on the mainland."

"I don't listen to music. Nature and my thoughts are enough."

"She [Liza's schizophrenic mother] chose my name, Liza, because it sounds like the German word for quiet: leise. Probably because she had so little quiet in her own head."

“You are not a list of symptoms, Liza. You are not a diagnosis."

"Like a good doctor only a whole lot better"

I don't find a lot of medical thrillers that are credible to their genre and put me as a layperson into the action. Carrie does this with ease. Highly recommended for those who love thrillers, fast-moving plots, and quirky characters.

This was an interesting, unusual suspense novel. Liza Larkin is a recent med school graduate starting her pathology internship. In a rash decision, she switches her hospital choice to one that is the home of a doctor she sees lurking in the background of some of her family photographs, and the sight of whom seems to have sent her mother spiraling deeper into schizophrenia. Liza is a truly unique character. She has some mental health issues of her own, and is prickly and antisocial and just plain strange. Think Lisbeth Salander as a doctor instead of computer hacker. The back and forth between Liza and Dr. Sam Donovan was deliciously unsettling.

Stalking a stalker--I was intrigued right away. My interest deepened when I got to know the main character, Liza. I couldn't get enough of her spunky awkwardness. And Dr. Donovan was an endless mystery I was dying to solve.

Things got intense and the suspense skyrocketed as the mystery deepened. I couldn't put this down. Then things slowed a bit before the final climax and I felt a little let down but it quickly picked back up and flowed into a satisfying ending.

Flippin' Flapjacks! 😳😯🤯😳😯

Fluffer nutter cluster bar! Delectably dark & bittersweet! If you loved The Maid, Never Saw Me Coming or Jane Doe, you'll devour this genius novel with a medical twist! I knew I was going to love it being a medical thriller, but the fun twist of Liza, being different and possibly on the autistic spectrum made it so much more intriguing. And boy did this NOT disappoint! This novel hit the spot!

Mყ 𝐒ყɴ𝐨ρѕιѕ: Liza is starting her first year internship as a pathologist. She's a loner, doesn't take social cues well and doesn't like socialization, happy to be on her own. After her Father's sudden death years ago, her mother dealing with schizophrenia and in a home now - Liza has an agenda. Finding a man that was in photos of her past. And when she comes to realize he's a trauma surgeon, she changes her hospital choice to his. She needs to know who he is. What he does. What he's about. Because she has a hunch and the connection is sinister.

I couldn't put this novel down. Think Grey's Anatomy with a dark twist! Wholy cannolis was this so delish and decadent I wanted more. The ending was superb and unreal. I loved cheering on Liza like crazy and even though she may have been a "bad" character, or a villain, I adored her and loved her. I gobbled up and overstuffed myself on this novel like a thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings! Undeniably juicy, salacious and tempting.

Thank you to NetGalley & Independent Book Publishers Association for this ARC.
Release Date: September 20, 2022

𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐭: 4.5 / 5 Beach Waves! 🌊

Liza has finished her MD and gets matched up with a hospital that wasn’t really her first choice but one that she’s chosen for a purpose. Armed with her boxing skills and a determination unhindered by ‘normal’ social skills, she’s focused on finding out the truth behind her father’s death. A renowned surgeon, who just also happens to be a successful sociopath, becomes her target, and their sparring continues round by round awaiting a decision or a knockout.

My thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I found this book to be thoroughly engaging, and I loved the strong female protagonist. It starts as a slow burn that piqued my curiosity as to how it would all resolve. Then it ratchets up as Liza starts making one questionable choice after another in confronting Dr. Donovan. Loved it.

I don’t know how to describe this book other than mediocre. Was it bad? Certainly not. But was it good? Not really. The plot wasn’t anything we haven’t seen before, it failed to create an air of suspense and just wasn’t something that stood out. But I will admit I absolutely adore our girlboss mc.

The idea behind this book is right up my alley, a female doctor going after her stalker, sign me up! But unfortunately it never felt like anything surprising happened, from the set up to the end the most I could say was it's ok.

Thank you so much to NetGalley to for providing me with an ARC of Fatal Rounds in exchange for an honest review.

Liza Larkin notices a strange man in the background of a family photo, and then another, and another. She sets out on a mission to determine who this man could be and why he’s in her photos.

Fatal Rounds was a mystery that kept me guessing and interested throughout the entire book. It moved at a great pace without being too fast or too slow, and was very gripping.

I'm a fan of unreliable narrators so I found this to be a quick, gripping read. The intimate first-person narration gives a great glimpse into Liza's mind. She's tough, resourceful, and doesn't always play by the rules, and yet she's a very likable character. I really enjoyed the hospital setting too. I would recommend this book to fans of psychological thrillers, medical thrillers, and suspense. Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this unusual and interesting book.

Carrie Rubin’s Fatal Rounds was a delicious novel, rife with suspense and intrigue that, for me, found its feet just a little too late in the game.

Protagonist Liza Larkin is entering her residency in pathology at the Titus McCall Medical Center. She’s smart, driven and experiences the world through the lens of her self-described “schizoid personality disorder”. She relies on lifelong lessons from both her psychiatrist and her parents regarding appropriate social behaviors to guide her daily interactions, though Liza still misses important cues and is often perceived as “odd” and quirky. Additionally, she has had to learn to control her angry and sometimes violent outbursts, and long standing relationships for Liza are few and far between. Her mother resides in a private mental health facility, her father is deceased and her musician brother survives in a cloud of depression. When Liza’s mother experiences a particularly alarming “episode”, Liza discovers a shadowy man who appears in the background of a number of family photographs—photos that seem to have triggered her mother’s angst and most recent decline. Liza’s mission to discern the man’s identity is quickly realized, at which time she commits to discovering why he, Dr. Sam Donovan, is seemingly stalking her family. In the process, she finds far more than she bargained for, placing her career, her family and her own life in jeopardy.

Liking Liza as a character is a difficult ask. Her strengths and “humanity” are revealed so slowly that, for the first half of the book, there seems to be no context to who she is. Rubin opens by placing Liza in a setting that would have been far more powerful had the reader been given an opportunity to invest in her and understand her actions and reactions. It took too much of a concerted effort, and an inordinate number of pages, to unwind her motivations and situate them in terms of her own mental health challenges. Additionally, while her close relationship with her father appears to eclipse his death, neither his life, their connection, nor his passing are explored to the extent necessary to make Liza’s behaviors believable. Finally, the reader is, throughout, expected to buy into Liza’s constantly recalibrating moral compass—something I was never quite comfortable simply attributing to her personality disorder. The echoes of psychopathy in Liza reverberated far too loudly for her to be sympathetic.

Character challenges aside, the pages turned quickly, and I found myself invested in the outcome—which, for me, makes this a worthwhile read.

Thanks to Net Galley and Indigo Dot Press for providing me with an ARC for review. Fatal Rounds is slated for publication September 20, 2022.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, Indigo Dot Press and by #NetGalley. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Likable characters, suspenseful page-turner. I throughly enjoyed it.

Fatal Rounds
by Carrie Rubin
WHEN THE STALKEE BECOMES THE STALKER…

Liza Larkin, a recent med-student graduate on the cusp of her pathology internship, isn’t like most people. She would rather study the human brain or pound the heavy bag at the gym than spend time with others, and as an outsider, she doesn’t let societal norms confine her.
So when a stranger’s picture sends Liza’s schizophrenic mother deeper into psychosis, Liza does a reverse image search to identify him. Upon discovering he is a trauma surgeon at a Massachusetts teaching hospital, she impulsively changes her pathology residency program of choice to his center.
She wants to be near him. She wants to know what he’s up to. She wants to protect her family.
See you in the ring soon, Dr. Sam Donovan. The bell has rung.


Very good book. LIza is schizophrenic Pathogliicis and recognizes Dr.Sam Donpvan in many photos with her family. She decided to stalk the stalker. It's intense, and on;y one winner/

I didn't expect to read this one so quickly, but once I started I couldn't put it down. Liza is a really interesting character, and at first I wasn't even sure I could trust her as a narrator, which only added to the fun. Her cat and mouse game with Dr. Donovan (or maybe I should say her "sparring" given the book's title) was juicy and made for a riveting story. I couldn't wait to see how it would play out, and I wasn't disappointed. Great supporting characters too.

I'd love to read another book with Liza in it! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy.