We’ve been patiently waiting to kick off our summer book club with Jeremy Hanson-Finger’s Death and the Intern (Invisible Publishing), a medical whodunnit/coming-of-age/dark comedy that’s been described by Gary Barwin as a “needle-sharp crime fiction that will definitely not put you to sleep.”
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The biggest challenge of summer book club is choosing just one book to read and discuss over the month, but we think our choice in Jeremy Hanson-Finger’s Death and the Intern is right on point. It’s got an ensemble cast of interesting, diverse characters to hook us in, a whodunnit to keep us guessing, and dark humour to amuse us all the way to the denouement.The novel follows medical intern Janwar Gupta who’s on an anesthesiology placement for two weeks at Ottawa Civic Hospital. As he’s getting to know his coworkers and hospital politics between two camps of anesthesiologists—the Pushers and the Mixers—navigating a budding romance with a journalism student named Susan Jonestown, and learning the O.R. ropes, he has a patient die during an operation. But despite his inexperience as an anesthesiologist, Janwar isn’t convinced it’s his fault and sets out to uncover whoreallydunnit.Borrowing elements from the traditional detective novel, giving them a literary twist, and placing the action smack dab in the sleepy city of Ottawa, Death and the Intern is surprising, fun, and a total page-turner. (Don’t just take our word for it; check out the 4.58 rating and reviews on Goodreads!)Bonus: music fans might also enjoy the music references that pop up throughout the novel. There’s even an accompanying playlist by Jeremy Hanson-Finger (songs that inspired his writing process), which you can listen to on Spotify to set the right mood.
We love a good making-of story to supplement our reading, so we went behind-the-scenes with Publisher Leigh Nash of Invisible Publishing to learn some fun facts about how the book came together.ALU: How did you find the manuscript?LN: Jeremy had read Andrew Forbes’s collection of short fiction, What You Need, and sent me a query; he thought The Big Freeze (as it was originally titled) might be a good fit for Invisible, as Forbes’s book explores a lot of the same themes of twenty-first century masculinity in a regional Canadian context. Plus, the plot sells itself: the novel follows Janwar Gupta, a medically brilliant but neurotic medical student intern, over a two-week period as he begins a placement in at the Ottawa Civic Hospital, has a patient die under suspicious circumstances, and bumbles his way through a criminal investigation focused on two feuding groups of anesthesiologists (the Pushers and the Mixers), and both potential and actual romances with a couple of femme fatales, most prominently journalism student and barista Susan Jonestown. A great hospital-anesthesiology-detective-caper novel: who could pass that up? ALU: How did the cover design come together?LN: Megan Fildes, one of Invisible’s founding board members, does all of our design, and this is one cover she absolutely nailed right off the bat. There are nuances to the design that become apparent once you’ve read the book (hint: the brick-like look of substance in the syringe), and its literal without being over the top. The cover updates the hard-boiled detective novel cover, with simple design and typography, while the illustration speaks to the comic and almost slapstick nature of the story. ALU: Did anything surprising happen on the way to publication?LN: Aside from finding out that the Ottawa Civic Hospital is set to move, thus rendering the book almost out of date before it was released…no, nothing surprising.ALU: What was reader response like? LN: I think the book surprises readers; it starts off heavy on the medical terminology, and then opens wide into a full-on murder mystery/amateur detective/whodunnit story. The story moves quickly, the characters are oddly relatable, and it’s genuinely funny. I think Gary Barwin’s blurb says it all: “Set in a vivid and compelling world of anesthesiologists gone bad, Jeremy Hanson-Finger’s Death and the Intern is needle-sharp crime fiction that will definitely not put you to sleep.”* * *If you haven’t already cracked open Death and the Intern, why not read an excerpt, and then buy a copy for 15% off?Here’s what’s in store for book club throughout July:
July 12 – All Lit Up staff discussion + reading questions (for your own group!)
July 19 – Interview with Jeremy Hanson-Finger (make sure to submit your questions to us by email hello@alllitup.ca or through Twitter, @alllitupcanada!)
July 26 – Further recommended reading
And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for further, impromptu discussion. Hop on the hashtag #teamALUreads to send us comments and questions!
