Review – Stress Test

Retired physician Richard L. Mabry, now popular award winning author, adds Stress Test to his growing list of Christian suspense titles. It’s a narrative of murder, kidnapping and deception with a dash of chaos, confusion and romance. 

Readers meet Dr. Matt Newman as he leaves the emergency room of Metropolitan Hospital’s Medical Center after saving a seriously injured teen when the girl beside him in the car had been killed. The natural “high” he savors isn’t uncommon after pulling a patient back from the brink of death, a natural high that can’t be found in “…anything from a glass, bottle or syringe” only in the life and death situations of an emergency room.

The ER’s pneumatic doors close with a “hiss” behind him as Matt notes the time—2:00 am. He won’t miss that familiar hiss and all it implies, he thought.  He had sold his medical practice to accept a new teaching position as assistant professor at Dallas’s Southwestern Medical Center. Tonight was his last night in the ER and his future looked promising. The added structure in academia might even make it possible for Matt and his girlfriend to consider marriage. 

With his thoughts on Jennifer, he fished the car keys from his pocket and headed toward “his silver Chevy Impala” parked in a dark corner of the deserted garage. He couldn’t know, when he put one hand on the door handle and the other on the remote’s unlock button that life as he knew it was about to change and not for the better…

Thus begins a fast-paced thriller that keeps reader’s guessing and pages rapidly turning just to find out what happens next. Matt only knows he’s been kidnapped by two men for reasons unknown who intend to “Get rid of him.”

Mabry weaves faith, prayer and belief into a suspense that captures readers with appealing characterizations, realistic dialogue and fast-moving plot and settings. The storyline is increasingly intense, yet without blood and gore, though there are some violent scenes.

However, far less swearing and sexual content than what the Federal Trade Commission deem permissible “family friendly” viewing time in the evenings. Click on the link to read chapters one and two… of Stress Test.