Jodi is a junior surgical registrar in a busy hospital. She comes from a respected medical family, and so her choice of profession was a given. But she is struggling, tired, stressed and wondering if she learned anything in medical school.

She meets Rory, an Anaesthetic Fellow when he intervenes with a patient, saving a life and a reputation. As they find themselves drawn together they both struggle with the reality of the work and expectations.

But Rory is hiding his own demons; a routine procedure that went horribly wrong in the past, which he constantly revisits in his dreams, and this is seriously undermining his mental health. Being a doctor with easy access to drugs, it is isn’t long before the self-medication for sedation to enable him to sleep escalates to far more problematic levels and behaviours.

Merriman is a haematologist and draws on her extensive experience to give the hospital environment and challenges staff face everyday authenticity. But I found the book read like a series of very short stories of one medical issue after the other; strung loosely together with the tale of the two doctors who are trying to stay together and sane in an increasingly difficult and hostile world.

Although not for me, if you are a fan of TV programs about hospitals with their full range of emotions, you will like this.

Reviewed by Lesley West