A serial killer in loose in New York, killing pregnant women and stealing their babies. The Giver wants to create clones and excels at medical research, no matter the cost in human lives.
Doctor Chris Ravello is mourning the murder of his mother and is determined to join the police to protect other families from the same pain. His personal life is in tatters as his family adjust to the lower financial situation and the change to working conditions. Can he catch the killer an justify his career change to himself and his family?
I haven’t read a medical thriller in a long time and had forgotten how much I LOVE THEM! My teenage years were spent with Michael Crichton and Robin Cook and this book brought me into the modern day with cloning and stem cell research. I liked the way that author William Rubin has cleverly merged the medical thriller and police procedural genres in Forbidden Birth.
The Giver is a sinister genius and sees himself as the nemesis of Chris Ravello. The ethical issues of cloning are portrayed in an interesting way and the advancement of human knowledge is a scary but relevant topic.
The book is written in short chapters to maintain the momentum of the grisly plot. There is graphic detail of the murders and medical procedures as well as autopsies but they are handled objectively and clinically rather than gratuitously.
The ending was dramatic but had a different focus which I enjoyed but I found it lacked credibility so didn’t quite meet the high standard of the rest of the book in my opinion. I definitely intend to check out the first book and have just found out that there are 14 books in this series!
Forbidden Birth book blurb
Unspeakable medical procedures. A crazed serial killer. Who will protect the innocent and at what cost?
Doctor Christopher Ravello is driven by an unquenchable desire to avenge his mother’s senseless murder. He forsakes a lucrative career in medicine, and plunges headlong into the brutal, unforgiving world of a New York City homicide detective. Head of the new Division of Medical Crimes, Ravello’s first case pits him against a brilliant, sadistic serial killer. Known only as The Giver, he is hell bent on subjecting young women and their unborn babies to his illicit experiments.
As the body count rises, New York City is engulfed in fear. Fighting an illness which threatens his job, immersed in turmoil at home due to his radical career change, Ravello struggles to understand who The Giver is and where he will strike next. Just as he discovers the killer’s identity the unspeakable happens, and Ravello is confronted with an agonizing choice: will he play it safe or make the ultimate sacrifice to save his loved ones and the city he is sworn to protect and serve?
