Reviewed by Essien Asian for Readers’ Favorite

AJ Docker is already preoccupied with a mysterious organization’s impending takeover attempt of the hospital’s services where he works when he is called into the emergency room to assist in saving the life of a patient with gunshot wounds. Despite his best attempts, the patient dies, but not without passing on an item and a cryptic message to the young doctor. AJ’s attempts to carry out the dead man’s final wishes see him and his trusted canine companion, Banshee, allying with his deceased patient’s sister in a dangerous race to prevent life-altering information from falling into the wrong hands in Gary Gerlacher’s Deadly Equation.

In the latest AJ Docker Medical Thriller series installment, your favorite medical practitioner returns to his sleuthing ways. Gary Gerlacher keeps the character development simple, using brief origin stories to introduce the newest characters in this expanding series while delicately cloaking their motives with his one-of-a-kind storytelling style. Gerlacher maintains trademark wry humor in the dialogue as Docker’s conversations with his colleagues and security personnel smoothly switch from funny to severe at short notice. Docker’s complaints about how the private sector’s interference in hospital activities has negatively impacted the core services they render in healthcare add realism. The subtle reference to cryptocurrency payments is a slight nod to the contemporary changes in the financial world. The singular aspect of Deadly Equation is the attention to detail in crafting the pieces that unite the mystery. The reader must solve one aspect before discovering the next clue in this riveting novel. This is an incredibly immersive read that adventure and mystery buffs will not be in a hurry to put down.