Review by Deb Czajkowski
Baby Emily is only one
month old when her daddy, Dr. Mike Scanlon, an orthopedic surgeon, is called
into service as an army doctor in Afghanistan. Leaving behind his wife, Chloe,
and baby Emily is so much harder for Mike than any hardships or dangers he
knows he will face as an army healer.
It’s Chloe, though, who
dies in their kitchen from a household accident. Mike flies home to bury
Chloe, heart-broken, confused, and looking for answers. With mounting
frustration, Mike discovers there are more questions than answers. How
could Chloe have bled to death, all alone and just inches from the front
door? How can he care for his seven-month-old daughter when she’s
terrified of this stranger who says he’s ‘Daddy’? How can his medical practice
have changed so much in such a short time? And is there even a place for
him there now?
Little does Mike know that
things both in Afghanistan and on the home front are going to get worse, much
worse, than he ever imagined before he begins for find answers to his many
questions. Mike finds himself searching deep inside himself to make sense
of the battle fields that are his new normal, struggling to regain control of his
life, a life with his precious daughter.
Many of us have experienced
life-changing events in our lives. It might have been a devastating car
accident, an unconscionable act of force, an unexpected or untimely death of
someone close. The fallout can be debilitating, the way back a series of
struggles that feels like drowning. Will the world ever stop tilting and
shifting and right itself once again?
In Don’t Go, author
Lisa Scottoline skillfully spins her own version of one event, Dr. Mike Scanlon
leaving his family behind as he serves his country in Afghanistan, that changes
many lives. The author convincingly places you in Chloe’s kitchen during
her last moments of life, in Afghanistan as Dr. Mike operates on injured
soldiers for hours on end, in Emily’s tears as she first searches for her
missing mama and then later screams when the stranger who is her daddy wants to
love her, and in the courtroom where Mike ultimately fights for his life.
Lisa’s heart-wrenching
story reminds us that there are many heroes in wars. The soldiers who
fight for our freedoms, of course. The medical staff that dedicates days,
months, years, and even their very lives, to saving lives, definitely. But the
spouses and families back home are heroes, too, often the forgotten heroes.
I applaud Lisa Scottoline for her knowledgeable and captivatingly informative
narrative. And I love that we in America have the freedom to write books such
as Don’t Go, a book about the very heroes who have fought for our
freedoms, including the freedom of speech.
Purchase the book at:
About the Author:
Lisa
Scottoline is the New York Times bestselling author of seventeen novels
including her most recent, THINK TWICE, and also writes a weekly column, called
Chick Wit, for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Lisa has won many honors and awards,
notably the Edgar Award, given for excellence in crime fiction, and the Fun
Fearless Female Award from Cosmopolitan Magazine. She also teaches a course she
created, called Justice and Fiction at the University of Pennsylvania Law
School, and regularly does speaking engagements. There are twenty-five million
copies of her books in print, and she is published in over thirty other
countries. Lisa graduated magna cum laude in three years from the University of
Pennsylvania, with a B.A. degree in English, and her concentration was
Contemporary American Fiction, taught by Philip Roth and others. She graduated
cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She remains a
lifelong resident of the Philadelphia area, where she lives with her array of
disobedient pets.
Connect with the author at:
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