Do No Harm by Christina McDonald

 After enduring a series of childhood traumas, Dr. Emma Sweeney now works as a family physician at a local clinic and is married to Detective Nate Sweeney, a detective in Skamania, a small town outside of Seattle, Washington. Their marriage is a happy one and they have a beautiful 5-year-old son named Josh. And then it all falls apart when Josh is diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and needs a very special experimental treatment that Emma and Nate can't afford. While Nate is investigating several drug overdose deaths, Emma decides that she is going to get the money the only way she knows how. She will write prescriptions for opioids and sell them to dealers. Once Emma steps onto this slippery slope, she slides down at an accelerating pace that will involve her in secrets, lies, and murder. But she is doing it all for the sake of saving Josh. NO SPOILERS.

Alas, what a disappointment. In order to suspend disbelief enough to buy into this thriller, one has to like the characters. I couldn't get there despite being told constantly what a good person Emma was and how desperately she loved her son. Do the ends justify the means when involving trafficking in deadly drugs? I found myself increasingly frustrated with Emma and her associations and activities. I also didn't really want to finish but did read to the unsatisfying conclusion anyway. Yes, there is a horrible problem with opioids. Yes, people still need them for intractable pain despite how highly addictive they are. I don't know what the answer is, but Emma didn't solve the problem, she became part of it. Rationalizing that she loved her son so much as the reason for her behavior didn't work for me nor did hearing about that every second sentence (all parents would be desperate in a situation like this - -we know). Anyway, that's how I felt while reading -- just too many irritations about the characters that prevented me from accepting the storyline.

I usually like books with any sort of medical aspect. As an RN and legal nurse consultant, I'm quite aware of the crisis and epidemic related to Oxycontin and fentanyl and I'm not sure that the steps being taken to combat the intense danger are going to ameliorate the many issues. Becoming part of criminal and illegal activity to further your own interests, however, is not the answer. And don't many dealers become their own customers? Definitely people are driven to extremes when they want to save their child and can't afford the expensive or experimental treatments that mean the difference between life and death, but I still can't accept how things worked out for Emma in the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for this e-book ARC to read and review.

This is a standalone and is not part of any series.

Genre - crime thriller, domestic drama