Do No Harm Review

Sometimes you’re dealt a losing hand you might win, sometimes you’re dealt a winning hand you might lose. You just gotta play the cards you’re dealt.
Christina McDonald-Do No Harm

Emma is a doctor and a mother. Nate is a detective and a father. Josh is a little boy, a son diagnosed with a deadly cancer and with that comes expensive treatments. Desperate to save her son, Emma decides to sell opioids to help pay for his treatment. Emma is quickly thrown into a world of drugs, lies and murder. It’s a modern day cat and mouse case as Nate is desperate to solve the case of who is behind the opioid crisis in their town. Will Emma be able to save her son in time? Or will she be caught?

What did I like:
1. I feel like this story was made for tv or movie. I think it would play on the big screen nicely. As I mentioned, its a cat and mouse chase with lots of secrets and sneakiness.
2. Not only does the book touch on the touch topic of opioid addiction, which is a big problem in our country, I liked that it also addressed the patients who are harmed the most. The ones who truly need pain killers to treat the daily chronic pain they have but can’t get it because doctors are afraid to prescribe it.

What I didn’t like:
1. I had a hard time relating to the characters and I felt like they could have been developed a little more. It was also told in two points of view, Nate and Emma’s but the chapters weren’t labeled. So it was hard to distinguish sometimes between the two.
2. While the plot and storyline was a good idea, I felt like the delivery was lacking. Relationships and friendships would appear out of nowhere and the timeline didn’t always make sense. The story would jump ahead days or a week at a time and the reader was left to figure that out on their own. As an example, someone was thrown into a river and then the next chapter that person is found and its indicated they’ve been in the water for 6-8 days but that didn’t follow the pattern for the rest of the story. I think titles like “X days later” or something would have been helpful.

*Thank you NetGalley and Galley Books for an advanced copy of Do No Harm in exchange for an honest review. Do No Harm is out February 16th, 2021.