Vera Mortina: When The Patient Is Not The Sick One! is another dark medical thriller penned by author Dimitri Markov. Written for adults due to some graphic content and violent themes, this novel forms the third volume of the Dangerous Doctors Series, after The Surrogate. Here we meet Dr. Richard Bates, a successful and devoted physician. But when Richard’s practice is in dire need of help, a speedy and incompetent head hunter brings him Dr. Vera Mortina. Vera comes with a whole host of bad energy around her, odd personality quirks and, worst of all, a body trail. The closer Richard gets to figuring this mysterious figure out, the more endangered his own existence becomes.

As a cautionary tale on background checks and trusting one’s instincts, this is a psychological and terrifying true to life novel that will make you think twice about going to the doctor. Author Dimitri Markov turns his dark imagination towards another unique setting for his Dangerous Doctors series, and our world (as viewed through the eyes of the kind and somewhat naïve Richard) gets turned upside down by the arrival of Vera. She is a character who will be hard to forget, impactful on every page and highly atmospheric in her depiction and dialogue. What impressed me most was the novel’s sense of grim reality, despite its body count and suspicious circumstances. Overall, Vera Mortina is a big leap up in quality for this series and a true accomplishment for fans of medical thrillers and dark mysteries.

Vera Mortina: When The Patient Is Not The Sick One! is the third novel in the Dangerous Doctors Series by Dimitri Markov. Dr. Richard Bates isn’t doing so well. He has tried his best to save people and cure them of their diseases, but it seems that now he is losing the battle. He decides to add another doctor to his practice and hires the very impressive Dr. Vera Mortina to his team. On paper, she appears to be the perfect doctor, but the more time she spends in his facility the more suspicious he is about her. Soon patients are mysteriously dying and they all seem to have something to do with Dr. Vera. Now, it is up to Dr. Richard Bates to find out what is wrong with her and make sure that he survives this.

This is definitely a dark novel, one that will make you sit back, pause, and reconsider everything. The atmosphere of the story is richly created; it rises and falls with the pace of the story and allows the reader to get sucked into it. It is spine-chilling; I have no better word to describe it. It gave me a sense of doom and made me look over my shoulder one too many times. Psychological thrillers are often not executed well, there is something missing in them, but author Dimitri Markov has done a fantastic job. Dr. Richard Bates is the perfect protagonist, he silently observes things and makes sense of things at his own pace. Vera is simply disturbing, she is vile yet she is scarily relatable. There is something about her that makes her interesting. You want to look at her more closely, but you know that it would be dangerous. Reading this novel was a phenomenal experience. Fans of medical thriller/horror will love this book. Very entertaining and scary!