Read Time: 2 Minutes
Doctor Lucifer, written and narrated by Anthony Lee, is a current day medical technothriller where, thanks to a computer worm, a hacker has gained access to the Ivory Memorial Hospital’s systems and can change medical records at will. The hacker known only as “Doctor Lucifer” has Dr Mark Lin in his sights, setting off a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game with life-or-death consequences.
A bit of research reveals that Lee has a background in medicine and healthcare, which lends authenticity to the narrative. However, the medical jargon can be overwhelming for non-medical listeners like me. As Lee’s debut novel, the story is engaging, but the main character could use some refinement. Dr. Lin occasionally comes across as overly perfect, bordering on a “Mary-Sue” archetype, being an intern yet excelling at everything, including cybercrime prevention.
That said, the cat-and-mouse chase to stop the hacker from murdering patients kept me hooked. There were a few points, though, where the narrative got bogged down by somewhat heavy-handed soapboxing on current topics. Frequent comparisons of the cyber threat to the COVID-19 pandemic felt overused and kind of distracting.
The dialogue, while clear, sometimes came across as forced, lacking a natural flow that would have made the characters feel genuine. Perhaps my world is too far removed from the medical world and the character portrayals are realistic, but I had a hard time connecting to them.
Despite this though, the medical setting did feel realistic to my admittedly limited exposure to hospitals in real life and on TV and the twists and turns of the plot were compelling enough to keep me engaged.
The narration by Lee is good considering (I assume) this would be his first time with narration. Surprisingly few quality issues, and even the few minor noise issues I’m not 100% sure aren’t actually a Spotify issue. The narration could benefit from more emotional depth to better capture the tension and urgency of the story. Narration by the author can be hit-or-miss in my experience, and Lee has done a good job with this audiobook.
Overall, “Doctor Lucifer” is an interesting blend of medical drama and technothriller elements in a modern setting. Despite the flaws I mentioned, it still is a reasonably decent listen for fans of medical and technothrillers.