DAVID BAJO reads from MERCY 6

Mercy 6 (Unbridled Books)

In Mercy 6, four people in four separate places within the same Los Angeles hospital all collapse and die at once. After a quick examination, Dr. Anna Mendenhall, the first ER doctor to care for the patients, orders the entrances and exits be sealed, believing the cause is contagion. With her is Mullich, the architect responsible for re-designing the hospital, which he had redesigned for precisely this scenario: containment

Almost as soon as she makes the call, however, Mendenhall realizes it’s a mistake. As infectious disease specialists take over, she fears they will draw out the investigation—see what they want to see—and keep everyone locked in the hospital for an unnecessarily long time.

What actually occurs, however, is more complex and unnerving than Mendenhall expects, as sinister outside agencies begin to get involved and medical concerns cease to be the primary concern. The farther her investigation goes, the more she understands that the forces around her want her contained, not because of her exposure to the patients, but because of what she suspects.

Mercy 6 is well researched and only slightly speculative—which makes this understated and cutting-edge medical thriller as chilling as it is suspenseful.

David Bajo was raised on the California-Mexico border and has worked as a journalist and translator. He is the author of Panopticon and The 351 Books of Irma Arcuri. He teaches writing at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, where he lives with his wife, the novelist Elise Blackwell, and their daughter.