First published 2020
Lucy Ryuan has delivered countless babies as a senior midwife at a Manhattan university hospital. Pregnancy and birth are routine parts of her daily work. Then patients start vanishing from her ward. Two kidnappings shake the hospital, followed by a brutal stabbing that happens under Lucy's watch. The missing patient who first raised alarm becomes part of a larger, more sinister pattern. Speculation runs wild through the hospital corridors. Some blame the Russian Mafia. Others point to an illegal adoption ring operating in the shadows. Lucy refuses to stand by while her patients disappear. She partners with a doubtful NYPD detective who questions her theories. As a single mother, Lucy understands the fierce protective instinct that drives parents to desperate acts. But the investigation reveals a conspiracy far more twisted than she anticipated. The truth behind the disappearances will test everything Lucy believes about the people she trusts and the institution where she has devoted her career to bringing life into the world.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, thriller
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, investigation
Setting: Manhattan, New York
Period: Contemporary
337 pages · Kindle Edition · Little, Brown and Company
Content warnings: kidnapping, violence