The Surgeon by John Nicholl
Genre: Psychological thriller
Read: 5th November 2025
Published: 19th October 2025
★★★★ 4 stars
DESCRIPTION:
Your life is in his hands… Exactly where he wants it 👀
When an eminent surgeon is arrested for murder, he knows he didn’t do it. He knows what it’s like to feel a person die on his operating table, but he didn’t inflict the wounds that ended the life of the girl they say he killed.
So, when the real perpetrator comes forward, and he is released, he feels vindicated.
What nobody knows – not the officer who arrested him, nor the influencer who petitioned for his freedom, nor the girl who escaped a killer years before – is that while he was incarcerated, he was making a plan.
Because revenge is sweet. But murder is sweeter…
A totally twisty, unhinged and gripping suspense thriller that fans of Daniel Hurst, TM Logan and Frieda McFadden won’t be able to put down.
MY THOUGHTS:
Your life is in his hands...which is exactly where he wants it...
Professor Alexander Aitken is one surgeon you would not like to be under, nor his scalpel. He is not like other surgeons who value their Hippocratic oath to first do no harm. When he was found by the body of murder victim Holly Larkin, her blood on his hands and his bite marks on her neck, it was naturally assumed that he was responsible for her untimely demise. And for the past five years, he has sat in prison for her murder - a death for which he was innocent in this case. But innocent was something Aitken most certainly was not. Oh, he was of Holly's murder but he was guilty of so much more than the police and the public at large were totally unaware of. And for the past five years and the months after his release once the real killer was discovered, he then spent planning his revenge. Because revenge is sweet...but murder is sweeter.
Ten years before, sixteen year old Megan Matthews was attacked on the dark streets of Tenby one evening barely escaping with her life and not before she'd been stabbed. She never saw her attacker and could never identify him but when she sees Professor Aitken on the West Wales news after his release and hears his voice, she stops. And then she sees those ice blue eyes. Her attacker wore a balaclava but she remembers those eyes and that caramel smooth voice. She takes her concerns to DI Laura Kesey who was always patient with her each time she thought she saw her attacker in the street. But this time, Megan is sure Aitken is the one.
Aitken curses himself for letting sweet little Megan go all those years ago. And she now sits at the top of his revenge list to be the first of his "lab rats" for him to study and bend at will. She will do as he says and she will feel the blade of his scalpel once again. In fact, it will be the last thing she feels and his will be the last face she sees. He will make sure of that. next on his list is Laura Kesey - the pig who put him away for a crime he clearly didn't commit. He will make sure she pays for her misdemeanour...and he has the perfect way to make that happen. He can almost taste it it is so perfect.
DI Laura Kesey was supposed to be enjoying a holiday with her wife Janet and their son Ed in Lanzarote but she couldn't leave the case of Professor Aitken behind. There was just something about it that didn't sit right. He professes his innocence but she saw the material on his computer. The man is clearly deranged and disturbed. If he is innocent of this crime, he is most certainly guilty of something else. If not now, then he will be. Of that she is sure. But when she returns home and Aitken is freed for being unjustly imprisoned for a crime he hadn't committed, Laura is intent on uncovering exactly what he is guilty of...because he is, that is for sure. But her boss has made it abundantly clear that Professor Aitken of off limits. She is not to investigate him, question him or go anywhere near him in any way, shape or form. Unfortunately for her, that leave Aitken free to his own devices...a clear recipe for disaster for both her and anyone else who gets in his way.
John Nicholl is one of my favourite authors with his gritty writing that pulls no punches in his unique style. He has the ability to draw characters that we can both sympathise and hate in equal measure. Laura Kesey is a mainstay in his standalones and I was thrilled to see her former DS Raymond Lewis return despite his retirement after events that took place in the previous book.
The chapters were a little longer I felt in this one though the book itself is a relatively quick read. Nicholl definitely knows how to paint a villain that readers love to hate. Aitken's scenes certainly do make for uncomfortable reading with disturbing scenes painted in vivid detail.
Not one of my favourite books but still a good read that packs a punch.
I would like to thank #JohnNicholl, #BoldwoodBooks and #Netgalley for an ARC of #TheSurgeon in exchange for an honest review.
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