Good News!! A new Zol Szabo Mystery!
Dr. Zol Szabo’s latest mystery, #5, BITTER PARADISE, is now complete and even has a cover. Although fully written and edited, the novel is still working its way through my publisher's system and will be available to readers in May 2020. Patient readers may pre-order the book on Amazon through this link:
Here’s the teaser for you:
After weeks of torture at the hands of Syria’s secret police, the bombing of his villa in the ancient city of Aleppo, and the murder of his daughter, trauma surgeon Dr. Hosam Khousa flees his fractured homeland with his wife and son. They make their way to Canada as refugees, where Hosam is forced to trade his scalpel for a barber’s clippers. Though he aches to regain his once- prominent surgical career, cutting hair in Hamilton, Ontario, seems a safe way to make a living, until a fellow Syrian is slashed to death in the barbershop. The ensuing gangland vendetta entangles Hosam and threatens his family.
At the same time, epidemic investigators Dr. Zol Szabo and Natasha Sharma are battling an outbreak of vaccine-resistant polio that has struck the city with terrifying fury. When Hosam visits a friend clinging to life in the intensive care unit, he spots something that might help the investigation but will ruin his chance of retaking his place in the operating theater. The Great White North is not the sanctuary he expected, but it’s a bitter paradise he must learn to navigate.
"Medicine has been my calling…creative writing my passion."
Thanks for stopping by. Here, you'll learn a bit about me, have a chance to look at my books, get updates via my blog (I call it News), and send me an email. I love hearing from readers, and I'm happy to sign and send copies of my books to anyone who is interested.
A note about me and my books:
My career as a specialist in infectious diseases spanned the globe before I took early retirement from Ontario's McMaster University and Brantford's General Hospital. My patients included hockey stars, doughnut addicts, warrior clansmen, outspoken nuns, and long-haul truckers. I've battled every germ you can think of, from Falciparum malaria to flesh-eating Streptococcus. I started writing at age ten by chronicling the four-day train trip I took solo across Canada’s Prairies and Rockies. Now I'm a father of two grown children, and live in southern Ontario – somewhere near Zol Szabo and his team of epidemic busters – with my wife Lorna, a talented quilter who loves breaking the rules of that tradition with panache.
Lorna and I fullfilling our shared dream to visit the Galapagos Islands.
THE UNFORGIVING TIDES: The true story of a young doctor’s encounters with mud, medicine, and magic on a remote South Pacific island, is my first book. I'm told it continues to delight readers; people call it gritty and charming, and it makes them laugh and cry. You can see what it’s all about under the Memoir heading. Some great photos are there too.
TAINTED, my debut Dr. Zol Szabo medical mystery novel, and TAMPERED, the second in the series, are set in Hamilton, Ontario on Canada’s Niagara Escarpment. Affectionately known as the Hammer, the city boasts less snow, and as much skulduggery, as nearby Buffalo. Both novels were awarded the Arts Hamilton Literary Award for Adult Fiction. They'll scare you and make you chuckle, all on the same page. And maybe turn you into a vegetarian!
The third Zol Szabo mystery, UP IN SMOKE, sees Zol putting himself and his family in harm’s way as he confronts the mastermind behind Canada’s clandestine – and deadly – illegal tobacco trade.
In BENEATH THE WAKE, Zol confronts a deadly epidemic ravaging a luxury cruise ship stranded in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Who’s next to be buried at sea?