Cold hearts

Cover

Cold Hearts (English: Harvest ) is a 1996 novel from the Medical Thriller genre by the American writer Tess Gerritsen . It was translated into German by Kristian Lutze .

With this work Tess Gerritsen, who had previously only written romantic novels, achieved her international breakthrough. The central issue is the illegal organ trade . Critics accuse the author that the story is based too much on the hit novel Coma by Robin Cook , which had appeared 20 years earlier.

action

The young doctor Dr. Abby DiMatteo, who is training to be a surgeon at the renowned Bayside Hospital in Boston, makes a fateful decision: As a member of the transplant team, she ensures that a penniless youth receives the donor heart that was originally intended for the wife of industrialist Victor Voss. He then tries full of hatred to destroy DiMatteo's career. Even then, Voss does not stop his actions when another suitable donor heart is unexpectedly found for his wife.

The young doctor is increasingly cornered by aggressive lawyers. While trying to defend herself, she discovers that something is wrong with the origin of the donor heart. It is not documented in the hospital records and is not listed in the nationwide computer system. Little by little she realizes the terrible truth: a criminal organization kidnaps Russian orphans in order to literally cannibalize them for the American market. The members of her transplant team are apparently all on the payroll of the Russian mafia. Dr. Abby DiMatteo is on her own in her struggle to survive and uncover the crimes.

literature

Tess Gerritsen: Cold hearts . Blanvalet, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-442-35880-9 (original title: Harvest . Translated by Kristian Lutze).