Moral Injuries

From the Sunday Times bestselling and award-winning author Christie Watson, comes a heart-pounding new psychological drama of secrets, lies, morals and medicine.

'Unique and compelling'

ELIZABETH DAY

'True literary perfection'

EMMA JANE UNSWORTH

'Heart-stopping, twisting, funny and frightening'

CHRIS WHITAKER

'Enthralling, gripping, deliciously dark... An immersive, unforgettable gem'

RACHEL CLARKE

'Propulsive, funny and filled with suspense'

SARAH LANGFORD

You're trained to save the lives of others. How far would you go to protect your own?

Ruthlessly ambitious Olivia, anxious perfectionist Laura and free-spirited risk-taker Anjali couldn't be more different. Yet their friendship, which began on the first day of medical school, has kept them inseparable for twenty-five years. As wild all-nighters and exam pressures gave way to the struggles and joys of new motherhood and intense jobs, their bond remained unbreakable. Years ago they promised that nothing would come between them and that they'd do anything for one another, including burying one night they have never spoken about: a drug-fuelled university party that forced them to make a deadly choice that could still destroy them.

When an eerily similar tragedy strikes involving their teenage children, everything the three women have built threatens to shatter around them. And they are left asking: just how far can you stretch a friendship before it snaps?

'Each new twist screeches like nails on plaster'

KATHRYN MANNIX

'Where medicine meets morality... with page-turning twists'

NATHAN FILER

'Intelligent, propulsive and disturbing... I couldn't put it down'

NIKKI SMITH

'An extraordinary book'

JOHN SUTHERLAND

'No-one writes about the drama of medicine like Christie Watson'

DR GAVIN FRANCIS

An exploration of moral ambiguity and what it really means to protect a life. Watson understands human flaws with empathy and insight. I've never read a novel before that combines such riveting accounts of frontline medicine, female friendship and family dynamics. Unique and compelling.

ELIZABETH DAY
What an enthralling, gripping, deliciously dark and twisted read - full of suspense, intrigue, blood, guts, warmth, tenderness and the trademark gorgeousness of Christie Watson's prose. Moral Injuries sweeps you into the life and death stakes of the hospital. An immersive, unforgettable gem. DR RACHEL CLARKE, bestselling author of Dear Life
Moral Injuries takes the reader into a world where medicine meets morality, and every choice has a cost. With page-turning twists, it explores friendship, betrayal and the decisions that define us NATHAN FILER, author of The Shock of the Fall
The book reeled me in straight away. It's one of those page-turners where 'I need to know!' and 'I can't bear to know' tussle with each other throughout the narrative, winding tighter and tighter with each new insight. The characters are eerily familiar. The plot is horribly credible. Each new twist screeches like nails on plaster. I'm exhausted. I'm going to be haunted by Olivia for a long, long time DR KATHRYN MANNIX
Heart-stopping, twisting, funny and frightening. Moral Injuries is by turns a rattling thriller, a soul-searching look at moral integrity, and a nuanced study of the binds of friendship, status and love CHRIS WHITAKER, NYT and Sunday Times bestselling author of We Begin At The End
No-one writes about the drama of medicine like Christie Watson; she takes her readers to the heart of hospital life with its pain and its beauty, its sadnesses and triumphs. DR GAVIN FRANCIS
[A] superior medical thriller... a thoughtful, humane and complex examination of ambition, betrayal, moral obligation, and ethical grey areas personal and professional. -- Laura Wilson GUARDIAN
Compulsively readable -- Joan Smith THE SUNDAY TIMES, Pick of the Month
Thoughtful, darkly gripping... 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. -- Alison Flood THE OBSERVER
Compelling GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
[A] must read. CLOSER
A propulsive, disturbing, visceral story of moral ambiguity and integrity, what it means to protect those your love - and at what cost, and female friendship. And it's the best fictional depiction of the alchemy, madness and intensity of medicine I have ever read. -- Natasha Poliszczuk BOOK-ISH
This book is utterly incredible in every way. I adored every page. Thrilling, pacey, hilarious, moving, so well constructed. I've not met such relatable, deftly hewn characters in an age. This book does so much in exploring unmined areas of women's relationship with their work, and each other, as life goes on. I think we rarely read mature female friendship done well (or at all), with all the complications of children/not children in the mix, but this book captures those betrayals, compromises and transgressions we all are capable of as life goes on - not just in medicine of course, but across life. Which is what makes this wonderful book an impeccably wrought, sharp, shining, clever exploration of mature female friendship, as well as a taut and sizzling medical thriller. Christie writes with a precision and grace that is true literary perfection. EMMA JANE UNSWORTH
Intelligent, propulsive and disturbing - I couldn't put it down. The ethical dilemmas at the centre of the book will have readers asking themselves, again and again, what would I do? NIKKI SMITH
An extraordinary book. Compelling and unsettling in equal measure - Christie Watson deftly weaves a tale that will linger long after you have put it down. JOHN SUTHERLAND
Heart-pounding. Soul-wrenching. A psychological thriller that dives into the dark beauty and madness of medicine. What a catharsis to see women bound by friendship and love and ambition peel away the layers of who they are at work. We see them bare their teeth and their souls. It is Big, Little Lies meets Grey's Anatomy in this delicious and satisfying mystery about friendship, love, and why we choose the work we do. Christie Watson has written a masterpiece. KATE BOWLER
Propulsive, funny and filled with suspense, Watson's pacy thriller kept me turning the pages late into the right. You know you're in the hands of an expert. A masterclass of its genre SARAH LANGFORD

Christie is Professor of Medical Humanities at UEA and worked as an NHS nurse for over twenty years. She has written five books, including her first novel Tiny Sunbirds Far Away, which won the Costa First Novel Award, and memoir, The Language of Kindness which was a number one Sunday Times bestseller. Christie is a contributor to The Times, Sunday Times, Guardian, Telegraph and TEDx, and her work has been translated into 23 languages and adapted for theatre.

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