Interview With Medical Thriller Author Anthony Lee

 

 

1. What inspired you to write this book?

For several decades, medical thriller stories have captivated readers, thanks to authors like Robin Cook. I've read books of this genre as well as other thriller subgenres, like crime thrillers, enough to become inspired to write my own thriller stories. Given my background in medicine, it's natural for me to contribute my own medical thrillers. That's when I saw an opportunity. 

While medical thrillers have been around, I haven't noticed the genre evolving all that much. I was getting tired of rehashed genre tropes, like doctors committing ethical violations. I also saw up close what the everyday work of a doctor is like. These things made me brainstorm medical thrillers that really celebrate doctors as frontline heroes as well as look outside the medical community for villains who would disrupt healthcare. One such idea: a computer hacker killing patients by altering digital medical records, creating medical errors that have devastating consequences for patients and their doctor. It's a premise we have not really seen before in medical thrillers. 

2. What exactly is it about and who is it written for?

My debut medical thriller, Doctor Lucifer, centers on a hospital internist named Mark Lin. He is cynical and disillusioned about humanity, given his early life tragedies and grueling medical training. It is this doctor who is the target of a computer hacker named Doctor Lucifer. Things are really bad for Dr. Lin from the start, because three patients crash nearly at the same time, and he comes to realize that there are errors in their medical records that he knows he didn't make. Eventually, the story becomes a game of cat-and-mouse as Mark teams up with two of the hospital's information technology specialists to outwit Doctor Lucifer before that hacker could kill another patient. 

This is no doubt a book for any fans of medical thrillers. In addition, I believe this story has additional appeal for people who work in healthcare and for the Asian American community who would like to see more representation of themselves in fiction. 

3. What do you hope readers will get out of reading your book?

First off, I want readers to be entertained, enjoying the rollercoaster ride of ups, downs, twists, and turns that I have laid out. Beyond that, I hope that readers also come away with a better understanding and appreciation of how doctors actually work in real life. For too long, medical drama shows on television have been criticized by healthcare professionals for missing the mark on medical accuracy. I want to tell a medical story that portrays real medicine as I understand it from my days in medical training. 

4. How did you decide on your book’s title and cover design?

I knew that I wanted the title to reflect the villain's moniker, one that would be a reference to the devil. There are several names for the devil, like Satan, but I ultimately settled on Lucifer because that name also refers to the demon associated with pride, one of the Seven Deadly Sins. By calling my novel Doctor Lucifer, the title can reference both the villain as well as one of the key themes in the story: arrogance in medical professionals. 

For the cover design, I wanted a look that tells readers what the book is about while also making them curious. I decided that it should have two elements: (1) a patient in a hospital bed, to indicate that it's a medical tale and (2) a computer monitor showing a caduceus dissolving into ones and zeroes, related to the cybersecurity aspect of the story. I had a cover designer incorporate these elements and he did a great job with it. 

5. What advice or words of wisdom do you have for fellow writers – other than run!?

Don't stop. In other words, don't stop writing your books and don't stop marketing them. Just keep going and enjoy the ride. 

6. What trends in the book world do you see -- and where do you think the book publishing industry is heading? 

At this point, the entire book industry has become heavily democratized. In other words, after decades of major publishers being the primary means of publishing books, the tools for publishing have become so accessible to the general public thanks to advances in technology. I cannot imagine the industry going back to the way it used to be. The genie of independent publishing has left the bottle, so to speak. This new world of book publishing provides both exciting opportunities for aspiring writers as well as great challenges related to the sheer competition in getting one's work in front of readers. As someone who could not get a literary agent after trying for two years, I had no choice but to self-publish, but it's a route that I have now accepted and embraced because I cherish my control over my own work. 

7. Were there experiences in your personal life or career that came in handy when writing this book? 

Much of my life and career experiences have made their way into my novel. If anything, reading the novel to see how the main character had gone through life before and how he deals with events in the current story is sort of a way to know who I had been earlier in my life.  

8. How would you describe your writing style? Which writers or books is your writing similar to?

I would describe my writing style as intense, vivid, methodical, and always moving forward. My writer's voice developed mainly from looking back on certain tough moments in my earlier life. It would end up sounding sort of like the tone of hardboiled crime novels. Funny thing: I had a friend who even said that my writing style seems to be similar to that of a specific novel by Dean Koontz, whose books I still have not read as of today. 

9. What challenges did you overcome in the writing of this book?

The main challenge I had while writing my book was self-doubt. Would anyone actually enjoy this story, or would they find it boring? Will they sympathize with the main character, or will they hate him? I got past that just by proceeding to publish and accept whatever happens. To my delight, there are plenty of readers who have enjoyed my novel, appreciated my main character, and were able to see themes I laid out in the story.  

10. If people can buy or read one book this week or month, why should it be yours?

Just look at the many positive reviews I received from professional reviews, associated with sources like Publisher Weekly's BookLife, Kirkus Reviews, and Foreword magazine., as well as readers. Doctor Lucifer has been out for only one-and-a-half months and it's doing fairly well in terms of audience reception. Based on the overall response, I think this is a medical thriller that you will enjoy and, with its pacing, likely read nonstop in a relatively short time. 

About The Author: Anthony Lee has a unique background in medicine. After graduating from medical school, he switched from clinical medicine to health technology assessment, analyzing new medical tests and treatments in a career spanning over 15 years. After years of brainstorming his own story ideas, he finally wrote and self-published his first medical thriller novel, Doctor Lucifer, in 2024. He lives in Northern California. For more information, please see: anthonyleebooks.com and spoutible.com/AnthonyLee 

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2024. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.9 million pageviews. With 4,900+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and director of publicity positions at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.