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| View Larger Image | Harvest
by Tess Gerritsen
| | List Price: | $7.99 |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 20569 | | Studio: | Pocket | | | Binding: | Mass Market Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 368 | | Publication Date: | August 01, 1997 | | Publisher: | Pocket |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Medical resident Dr. Abby Matteo is elated when the elite cardiac transplant team at Boston's Bayside Hospital taps her as a potential recruit. But faced with a tormenting life-and-death decision, Abby helps direct a crash victim's harvested heart to a dying teenager -- instead of the wealthy older woman who was supposed to receive it. The repercussions leave Abby shaken and plagued with self-doubt.Suddenly, a new heart appears, and the woman's transplant is completed. Then Abby makes a terrible discovery. The donor records have been falsified -- the new heart has not come through the proper channels. Defying the hospital's demands for silence, she begins her own investigation that reveals a murderous, unthinkable conspiracy. Every move Abby makes spawns a vicious backlash...and on a ship anchored in the waters of Boston harbor, the grisly truth lies waiting. |
Amazon.com
When Robin Cook wrote Coma in 1977, the idea of hospital patients being incubated for their vital organs sounded like science fiction. Twenty years later, this gripping thriller about a thriving international black market in human hearts, livers and kidneys could come from tomorrow's "Nightline." Author Gerritsen was an internist before she switched her energies to writing, and her experience shows in every scene. When young surgical resident Dr. Abby DiMatteo assists at her first "harvest" (the removal of living organs from a patient declared legally brain dead) at Boston's posh Bayside Hospital, "she felt vaguely nauseated by the whine of the blade, the smell of bone dust," neither of which seem to bother the veterans. It's obviously a personal memory being mined for good fictional purposes. (Gerritsen wrote paperback romance novels before Harvest: Check out her Keeper of the Bride and Thief of Hearts.) |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 88 reviews)
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My first read 
I was very impressed! I have just ordered two more of her books. The end was a complete surprise for me!
June 16, 2008 | |
Gerritson's first thriller 
This was a well-written book: suspenseful plot, plenty of velocity. As another reviewer has stated here, this is not Gerritsen's first novel, but it is the one the propelled her to fame and so is often mistakenly assumed to be her "first." Prior to this, she wrote romance. And since the success of Harvest, she has written quite a few thrillers that have clearly garnered her a loyal and enthusiastic following.
That said, there is really only a small slice of Gerritson's novels that appeal to me. Her Jane Rizzoli series holds absolutely no fascination for me, because following the exploits of a serial killer for six or seven books - or even two pages - isn't my idea of fun. As I commented in my review of one of Patricia Cornwell's books, there are just some places in the human psyche that I refuse to contemplate. The mind of a serial killer is one of them.
Nor do her romance novels interest me. So that leaves basically her medical thrillers such as Gravity, Harvest, Life Support, and a couple others.
The plot of this book is quite simple: Russian orphans are bought and sold for the sole purpose of harvesting their organs. But figuring out who the bad guys are and then catching them takes 300+ pages and makes for a fun read. And, I couldn't help but think that the heroine in this story was patterned after Gerritson herself to a certain degree. I kept imagining the female equivalent of a guy in midlife crises who writes a book that draws on inside knowledge gained during his career, while making himself into an uber-hero. Frankly, that's the problem with creating a protagonist who shares too much in common with the author (gender, profession, age, and in Gerritson's case -- minority ethnicity). Your readers are left to wonder just how much of the lead character is a subconcious projection of "I coulda been a contender" and how much is truly fiction. It's the same nagging question I have whenever I read a Lisa Scottoline novel and then flip between her desciption of the heroine and the picture of Lisa on the dust jacket. Hmmm.
Admittedly, Gerritson's experience as a practicing M.D. gave her obvious mastery of the technical details requisite in a medical thriller and lends them plenty of authenticity. And, I find her plots and dialog to be head and shoulders above Robin Cook -- a guy who can't manage to write believable dialog or create a non-stereotypical character to save his life. So it's nice to have something besides Cook if you want a medical thriller.
My only real gripe about Gerritson is that in several of her books she feels compelled to take a cheap shot at Christians. Funny, if she were to single out any other religion there would be howls of protest, or - God forbid - if she were to pick on a "minority" group of some kind and treat them with the stereotypical approach she takes to Christians, she'd be villified. But because it is an idiotic charicature of a follower of Christ, rather than Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, or Hinduism, she's given a free pass.
She clearly has a chip on her shoulder and it diminished my respect for an otherwise very talented storyteller.
November 03, 2007 | |
Harvest
a well written book with a topical story line.A good author to read if you want a fast moving,gripping book
August 27, 2007 | |
Gripping Thriller
I couldn't put this book down. Excellently written, very suspenseful and an interesting issue to address outside the world of fiction. This is the third novel of Gerritsen's that I've read and I've enjoyed them all.
August 26, 2007 | |
Medical Thriller "Transplants" the Reader
In order to add excitement to my middle aged life, I depend on sexy crime dramas and and novels to raise my pulse. Tess Gerritsen manged to do just that as she took me through the pages of almost perfect crime in this medical thriller.
Coincidentally I worked for almost ten years as part of transplant teams in a major transplant center. I can honestly say that the author worked very hard not to abuse artistic license. I found myself back in the world of high tech medicine. While moving between those pages, I became the female heroine trying to escape her potential fate.
Novels can educate but they can also provide a release -a temporary trip through a more exciting life. I enjoyed love, lust, fear and success, all in one literary journey.
August 16, 2007 | |
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