A Particularly Nasty Case – Adam Kay

Off the back of his big-time success with This Is Going To Hurt and subsequent memoirs about working as a junior doctor in the NHS, Adam Kay has turned to writing fiction. His first novel is a crime thriller, A Particularly Nasty Case, and Hachette Australia were kind enough to send me a copy for review.

A Particularly Nasty Case is a mix of murder, mystery, and medicine that kicks off with an emergency resuscitation at a mature age queer sex club (yes, you read that right). The main character is recovering from a manic episode that nearly cost him his job, self-medicating with a nasal spray laced with cocaine (a totally foolproof plan). It takes a minute to get to the true inciting incident – the sudden death of his boss, who was in perfect cardiac health before suffering a major heart attack – but once you do, it really takes off.

This is the rare case of a non-fiction writer producing quality fiction that doesn’t just feel like a roman a clef, another version of their niche memoir reproduced with names changed and a little creative license. A Particularly Nasty Case is rollicking good fun, sharp and funny (like when he describes the hospital’s ‘new’ wing as being “new like the New Testament is new”). Your heart will be in your mouth, and your guts will fall to the floor as the unstable genius desperately tries to convince everyone around him that a wily murderer is on the loose. Hats off to Adam Kay – medicine’s loss is our gain!

Read A Particularly Nasty Case on audiobook via Libro.fm here. (affiliate link)