HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Loading...

Beat the Reaper (2009)

by Josh Bazell

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: Pietro Brnwa (1)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1,9431938,424 (3.8)128
Fiction. Thriller. HTML: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.

Spattered in adrenaline-fueled action and bone-saw-sharp dialogue, BEAT THE REAPER is a debut thriller so utterly original you won't be able to guess what happens next, and so shockingly entertaining you won't be able to put it down.
… (more)
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 128 mentions

English (184)  Spanish (5)  Italian (2)  Piratical (1)  Dutch (1)  Danish (1)  All languages (194)
Showing 1-5 of 184 (next | show all)
I knew I would enjoy this book from page 1. It's fast-moving, muscular, and funny. I won't get into summary, here, beyond the fact that it's about a doctor with an unusual past and skillset in a crappy hospital in New York, and the things that happen to him over the course of one day, and the ways he deals with them, will have you grinning with glee.

If you're a fan of thrillers, read it. Even if, like me, you usually can't stand thrillers because of crappy writing. This writing isn't crappy. It's the best kind of writing for a thriller: it stays out of the way of the story.

Now: READ IT! ( )
  bookwrapt | Mar 31, 2023 |
Maru
  BegoMano | Mar 5, 2023 |
What an excellent read. I will be looking for other books by Josh Bazell. ( )
  lynnbyrdcpa | Feb 18, 2023 |
Not bad, Not That Great. Gets a little too wild at the end to have any believability. Would I read another by the author, probably not. ( )
  bjkelley | Jan 7, 2023 |
this was one of those books i accidentally read, and i don't ENTIRELY regret it. there were a lot of interesting facts about anatomy thrown into what was, to me, a kind of annoying mafia tale. sure, the whole episode where all poles are painted as suspicious, anti-semitic assholes really rubbed me the wrong way. the medical stuff was neat and there were actually a couple moments where his writing left me a bit in awe. as for the rest ... well, at least it went by quick. ( )
  J.Flux | Aug 13, 2022 |
Showing 1-5 of 184 (next | show all)
This may be the most imaginative, albeit the most violent and profanity-laden, debuts of the new year.
added by stephmo | editUSA Today, Carol Memmott (Jan 23, 2009)
 
Beat the Reaper is definitely not a book to pick 
up if you happen to be recuperating in a hospital,
 but if you're stuck in an airport with a long flight delay, it's just what the doctor ordered.
 
Beat the Reaper is a skillful performance, and the proof lies in our willingness to swallow it whole. If at first we allow Mr. Bazell to hoodwink us because he’s so good, the true test comes later—when we forget we’ve been had.
 
And Bazell is really funny, mostly in a fast-flying, smart-alecky way, but with enough rim-shot silliness - as when Peter explains mobster Joey Camaro's nickname, "supposedly because he was constantly bitching." Peter is the crazy-looking guy at the back of the bus whom you kind of want to buy a beer. He's the person you both do and don't want on your side, kept around. He's the pigeon trying to beat the rat. And so is his story.
 
Bazell has sutured together Alan Alda's Capt. Hawkeye and James Gandolfini's Tony Soprano, and so long as he keeps everything operating fast enough, it's too much fun and too much gore to take your eyes off the page.
added by stephmo | editWashington Post, Ron Charles (Jan 11, 2009)
 

» Add other authors (7 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Josh Bazellprimary authorall editionscalculated
Conti, LucaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Petkoff, RobertNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

Belongs to Series

Belongs to Publisher Series

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
If Nietzsche is correct, that to shame a man is to kill him, then any honest attempt at autobiography will be an act of self-destruction.
-Camus
Dedication
In Memoriam
Stanley Tanz, MD
1911-1996
First words
So I'm on my way to work and I stop to watch a pigeon fight a rat in the snow, and some fuckhead tries to mug me!
Quotations
I should say here that being chronically sleep-deprived is so demonstrably similar to being drunk that hospitals often feel like giant, ceaseless office Christmas parties. Except that at a Christmas party the schmuck standing next to you isn’t about to fillet your pancreas with something called a ‘hot knife.’
"Status post," abbreviated "s/p," is a common medical term meaning "after" and implying "but not necessarily caused by." It's Latin for "Try suing me now, Fucker."
But rituals turn us all into fucking idiots. Like those birds that sleep with their heads facing backwards because their ancestors slept with their heads under their wings. Plutarch says caring new wives across thresholds is stupid because we do't remember that it refers to the rape of the Sabine women -- and that's fucking Plutarch, two thousand years ago. We still draw the Reaper with a scythe. We should draw him driving a John Deere for Archer Daniels Midland.
None of this says anything about her. It doesn't even tell you how she looked.
Most bottled water in a hospital has 5 percent dextrose. This is to prevent the phrase "Liter of plain fucking water: $35" from appearing on your bill.
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

Fiction. Thriller. HTML: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.

Spattered in adrenaline-fueled action and bone-saw-sharp dialogue, BEAT THE REAPER is a debut thriller so utterly original you won't be able to guess what happens next, and so shockingly entertaining you won't be able to put it down.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Dr. Peter Brown, an intern at a Manhattan hospital, finds his past catching up with him when a patient realizes Peter is actually Pietro "Bearclaw" Brnwa, a hit man for the mob and has been in the Witness Protection Program for years, leaving Peter scrambling to find a way to protect his patients and himself from the bloodbath that will ensue if Peter's patient reveals his true identity.
Haiku summary

LibraryThing Early Reviewers Alum

Josh Bazell's book Beat the Reaper was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.8)
0.5 1
1 12
1.5 7
2 40
2.5 14
3 149
3.5 50
4 267
4.5 54
5 154

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

Hachette Book Group

5 editions of this book were published by Hachette Book Group.

Editions: 1600244327, 0316032220, 0316037559, 0316032212, 1600248195

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 202,657,748 books! | Top bar: Always visible