Review – Guarded Prognosis

When Dr. Caden Taggart saw the two men sitting in his waiting room, he didn’t think they were patients. He was right, and when they introduced themselves as agents of the Drug Enforcement Agency, things started to get bad.

Then Caden felt as though someone had gut-punched him when his father, Dr. Henry Taggart, told him he probably had carcinoma of the pancreas. When he talked about his son assisting with his suicide, Caden wondered how he could talk him out of that.

When he shared his news with his wife, Beth, she tried to assure Caden that God was in control. But as things progressed, he was unsure that was true. At first, he feared for his freedom. Then for his ability to cope. Eventually, he feared for his life.

My thoughts: Always the teacher. That’s how I would introduce one of my favorite authors, were I given the privileged opportunity to do so. Dr. Richard Mabry has the ability to identify the issues in our humanity that cause us the most anxiety, the ones that keep us awake nights. He also possesses the skill, the wisdom, and most importantly – the courage – to face those issues straight on, and cut to the heart of the matter.

Always the surgeon, Dr. Mabry realizes that just hoping these things will “go away” isn’t going to make them do so. It requires surgical intervention. And whether Dr. Mabry is wielding the scalpel . . . or the pen . . . this retired surgeon-turned-author is equally skilled, and more than up to the task.

The world of Dr. Caden Taggart has rapidly become unmanageable. The two men sitting in his waiting room didn’t appear to be patients. That they were not became abundantly clear when they introduced themselves as agents of the Drug Enforcement Agency. This was just the tip of Dr. Taggart’s personal iceberg.

A phone call from his father prompted a visit where his father revealed a serious medical condition . . . and requested his son’s assistance in his suicide. When his mother, the victim of a stroke, suddenly passed, Dr. Taggart was without a doubt on the ropes. What else could possibly go wrong?

Well . . . that was a rather obtuse question.

While there may be legal battles looming on the horizon and emotional issues closer to home, Dr. Caden Taggart must ultimately conclude that the most immediate concern was his heart condition. He needed a new heart; a heart of flesh, and not of stone. And only the Great Physician is capable of that kind of surgery.

Written in Dr. Richard Mabry’s award-winning style, GUARDED PROGNOSIS will touch the reader at every level.

5 stars for another page-turning medical suspense by Dr. Richard Mabry