Point of Balance by J.G. Jurado

Published in Spain in 2014; published in translation by Atria Books on August 11, 2015

David Evans, the top neurosurgeon at an exclusive D.C. hospital, comes home to find his daughter and her nanny missing. The kidnapper, who seems to know all there is to know about Evans, does not want ransom money. Instead, Evans is asked to engage in what might (with some understatement) be termed medically unethical behavior. The moral dilemma that Evans faces -- kill an important patient or lose his daughter -- drives the story.

Evans is a rather bland protagonist. Although he tells us the usual stories about the god delusion that plagues surgeons, Evans doesn't suffer from delusions or anything else that would give him a personality.

The bad guy, who calls himself Mr. White, is sort of a sociopathic megalomaniac, which makes him more interesting than Evans. White's study of psychology has turned manipulation of others into a scientific art. I liked that, but White's expertise as a computer hacker is trite and silly. White turns out to be working for the real bad guy, whose identity is only partially revealed. That's disappointing, as is the failure to explain the unidentified bad guy's motivation for wanting the crime to be committed.

The sister of Evans' dead wife (who once considered herself a rival for Evan's affections) is rather conveniently in a law enforcement position that puts her close to the action. J.G. Jurado tries to give the story more depth by giving the dead wife's sister unresolved feelings for Evans. The resulting interaction comes across as a melodramatic soap opera. The sister is ridiculously self-pitying when she isn't being ridiculously judgmental. Jurado's attempts to humanize Evans with saccharine memories of his wife are a little nauseating.

The plot, at least in broad terms, is a familiar one. That doesn't make the story bad, but it does call upon the writer to give it a fresh twist and to avoid following a predictable path. Jurado's efforts are moderately successful, but the story fails to realize its potential.

The plot is farfetched but that's normal enough for conspiracy thrillers. This one is marred by White's decision to give Evans an extra challenge midway through the novel that makes no sense whatsoever. It is the kind of plot complication that exists only to add more action to the story. If some rational explanation existed for the added action I would be fine with it, but this situation was so contrived that I could only shake my head.

Later in the novel, White engages in an unnecessarily risky act of violence that I could not begin to believe. White seems determined to do everything he can to screw up his assignment. A scene that has Evans in one of D.C.'s bad neighborhoods is the kind of thing that is imagined by writers who have never been in a bad neighborhood.

Medical thrillers depend upon interesting medical trivia to engage the reader's interest. I liked the "inside baseball" of neurosurgery and hospital administration. I wish there had been more of that. I also liked the zippy speed at which the story moves. The story holds a couple of mild surprises and some excitement near the end, but they do not quite overcome the novel's faults. The ending tries to be clever but it doesn't quite make sense.

NOT RECOMMENDED