Christie Watson is the first in a handful of big name authors with new thrillers out this month. Winner of the Costa first novel award for her debut, Tiny Sunbirds Far Away, she is a former NHS nurse who has also won acclaim for her memoir, The Language of Kindness. Moral Injuries (W&N), her first thriller, is a thoughtful, darkly gripping look at the lives of three doctors – Olivia, Anjali and Laura – who met in medical school and have stayed friends through all the twists and turns their jobs have thrown at them. In their 40s now, Olivia and Laura with teenage children, they are forced to remember a night from their youth, when the three of them did something that has cast a long shadow over their lives ever since.
Watson is, unsurprisingly, brilliant on the reality of working in the NHS, and the strain and reality of the trio’s jobs (Olivia is a surgeon, Laura an air ambulance doctor, Anjali a GP) is brought to riveting life. She is also excellent on betrayal, female friendships and family, and what we might do to protect it. I was so caught up in it all I had to flick ahead to the end to calm myself down. I don’t recommend doing that – but I do recommend Moral Injuries.
