Harvest

Features

• Cover Type: Mass Market Paperback with 368 pages
• Published by: Pocket August 1, 1997
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 067155302X
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0671553029
• Book Dimensions: 6.3 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Weighs: 6.4 ounces

Product Review
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.) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Robin Cook is going to feel just swell after taking a look at Gerritsen's first novel. It's been 19 years since Cook published Coma as his own first novel, but that book's basic elements?as a tale of medical terror in which a feisty young female doctor in Boston foils a medical conspiracy involving the murdering of innocents to harvest their organs?are found in Gerritsen's novel as well. Along with the requisite amoral medical types goaded by greed, Gerritsen includes Russian mobsters, orphans at deadly risk, a ruthless industrialist, murders disguised as suicides, a bloody climax aboard a Russian freighter in Boston Harbor and some graphic surgical scenes. Surgical resident Abby DiMatteo is on the fast track at Boston's fictional Bayside Hospital. But after she disobeys orders so she can give a heart transplant to a failing 17-year-old instead of to a failing middle-aged, rich woman, her career options look slim. Fighting back against hospital administrators, shyster lawyers and violent thugs, Abby?spunky but angst-ridden and also rather whiny?finds major discrepancies in the records of Bayside's organ-transplant procedures. Shocked, she finally learns the truth, experiences a major betrayal and, in the climax, must herself face the final harvest. Gerritsen's crisp pacing and adept handling of the medical background?she's a retired internist?add sizzle to the tale, but her characters need life support, the climax is too drawn out and the final revelations will surprise only readers who move their lips. Major ad/promo; film rights sold to Paramount; simultaneous Simon & Schuster Audio; foreign rights sold in the U.K., Germany, Sweden, Holland, Finland, France, Korea, Denmark, Norway, Spain and Italy.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Reader Reviews
Firstly, I have to say that Harvest is in my Top Ten List of all-time most favorite reads (and I've been a voracious reader for forty years).........This book has it all.............thrills, chills, great twisted plots, superb character development...........bad guys, good guys....kept me guessing.......and guessing......... Abby Di Matteo was a second year resident at Bayside Hospital in Boston when she was chosen to be part of the cardiac transplant team.... When she discovered that a heart was to be given to a rich man's wife, rather than a young 17 year old boy who was next in line, both Abby and Dr. Chao, took drastic measures....which had immediate repercussions! Finding donor records as being falsified, and knowing that some hearts aren't coming through the correct channels, Abby starts an investigation........ Since I first read Harvest when it came out in hardcover in 1996, the details and characters have stayed with me....this is a book that one can't forget..........it's an "edge of the seat" thriller, which is even scarier knowing that it's so easy for this to happen in real life.............Gerritsen's knowledge of the medical field shines through without all the jargon that we lay people can't understand! No matter where I am, at weddings, wakes, bookstores, beaches, if I see or know someone who reads, I always recommend any Tess Gerritsen book, so long as it includes Harvest!! Better than Cook, Crichton, or Palmer, and they are great authors, I assure you............This book is a MUST read..... Gotta mention, I was lucky enough to meet this beautiful and talented lady, twice at booksignings.........she is such a down-to-earth, friendly, sincere person, I hope each of you gets to meet her someday also!