First published 2009
Dr. Joanna Lander pages through Mercy General Hospital documenting the stories of patients who return from clinical death. For two years she has recorded their near-death experiences, working on the edges of accepted medical research. When Dr. Richard Wright arrives with a psychoactive drug that can manufacture NDEs in the lab, Joanna sees her chance to study death from the inside. Wright believes the near-death experience helps people survive longer, and he needs Joanna's expertise to make his research credible. When his volunteer quits, Joanna steps forward as the next subject. Her first artificial NDE captivates her completely. The experience feels familiar in ways she cannot explain, drawing her back for repeated sessions. Each return trip deepens her growing fear. Part of her mind already understands why this simulated death feels so recognizable, and why terror makes more sense than curiosity. Willis builds toward a revelation that transforms everything Joanna thought she knew about her research.
Genres: fiction, science-fiction, medical, mystery, psychological-thriller, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Mercy General Hospital
800 pages · Kindle Edition · Bantam