An amazing page turner that keeps you engrossed from the very beginning. The story is told in a gripping stream of consciousness style that I couldn't put down.

The narrator takes us from the murder of his grandparents/guardians; through his plot to extract revenge for their deaths; to a time as a mob assassin; into the Witness Protection Program and finally into his current life as a doctor at Manhattan Christian Hospital, the bottom rung of the city's hospitals.

Follow Dr. Peter Brown through his most daunting challenge of all, when he's identified by a terminal patient (and mob made man!) as The Bearclaw, his old mob moniker, and threatened with exposure to mobsters seeking revenge, if Dr. Brown doesn't bring him through life threatening surgery safely! Can he beat the reaper? ( )

Dr. Peter Brown is an intern at Manhattan's worst hospital, with a talent for medicine, a shift from hell, and a past he'd prefer to keep hidden. Whether it's a blocked circumflex artery or a plan to land a massive malpractice suit, he knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.

Pietro "Bearclaw" Brnwna is a hitman for the mob, with a genius for violence, a well-earned fear of sharks, and an overly close relationship with the Federal Witness Relocation Program. More likely to leave a trail of dead gangsters than a molecule of evidence, he's the last person you want to see in your hospital room.

Nicholas LoBrutto, aka Eddy Squillante, is Dr. Brown's new patient, with three months to live and a very strange idea: that Peter Brown and Pietro Brnwa might-just might-be the same person ...

Now, with the mob, the government, and death itself descending on the hospital, Peter has to buy time and do whatever it takes to keep his patients, himself, and his last shot at redemption alive. To get through the next eight hours-and somehow beat the reaper. ( )

Pietro Brnwa is a former hit man with the mob. He enters the witness protection program and as the novel opens, he is an intern in internal medicine at Manhattan Catholic, a notoriously bad New York hospital.

He found his grandparents murdered when he was age fourteen and later, told a friend that the only thing he wanted was to find the killers and repay them for their crime.

He learns who killed his grandparents and his wish is granted. He finds that he is good at killing and continues as a hit man but with a moral code. He won't kill women or innocents.

Eventually, he meets Magdelina, the girl of hiis dreams. Then, he attempts to leave the life when something goes wrong.

Interspersed with Pietro's history, in the present, he is Dr. Peter Brown. He's working at the hospital when he has the misfortune of meeting an old mob acquaintance, Eddie Squillante. He tells Peter that if he doesn't save him from the cancer that's eating him, information will be given to the mob on his present position.

The author states that Raymond Chandler is one of his influences and we see it in the crisp dialogue and hard boiled characters that Chandler was known for, i.e. in "Playback," Marlowe's neighbor overhears a conversation and tells him, "I'm your next door neighbor. I was having a nap and voices woke me...I was intriged."
Marlowe's response, "Go somewhere else and be intrigued."

Josh Bazell has written a wale of a story. Some parts are a stretch however, such as when Peter's old friend and current enemy brings him and Magdalena to the shark tank at Coney Island to seek revenge. That being said, the story had a kick which was pleasurable.

The plot was original, the humor dark and Peter was a unique character; although I hope I'm never in a hospital as one of his patients. ( )

AWESOME! Vulgar, violent, unpredictable, and wholly entertaining. ( )

I saw this book in the bookstore at the weekend with a blue cover, and again in yellow. My copy’s red. Very odd. And it’s a very odd book, besides being thoroughly entertaining, intriguing and absorbing.

The story’s set in a Manhattan hospital, where a doctor tries to “beat the reaper” in the medical sense, whilst also trying to escape his own personal reaping. His past—well, you’d have to read the story… The tale is told in first person present tense, which works perfectly. It feels like listening to a very strange, possibly deranged, but superbly intelligent person telling his life, and it draws you in completely. I learned the oddest of medical facts from the footnotes, including why bone grafts come from the leg. And the story took me from the world of Polish Jews to the Italian Mafia, to murder, mayhem and hospital.

There are scenes that are definitely not for the squeamish, told with a deft hand that lets this slightly squeamish reader safely off the hook—a very deft hand. And the whole is a curiously satisfying madcap adventure with just enough seriousness to haunt you when it’s done. Highly recommended. Outrageous fun. ( )