The Recipent

The Recipent by Dean Mayes is an excellent psychological thriller that I just read. The story takes place in Melbourne Australia. Not only is the story excellent but the author and how this book came to be written is very interesting also. My mystery book club is reading books that take place in Australia or the Pacific for our August meeting and I serendiptously found this book.

It is about a young woman who receives a heart transplant but she seems to have acquired some of the donor's memories. These memories lead her to helping solve a cold case and make a gruesome discovery.

Trailer:
https://youtu.be/0c7ztCYUDo4

Casey Schillinge is a vivacious young woman on the verge of making her mark on the world. While backpacking, she is struck down by a tropical disease and suffers cardiac failure. But at the eleventh hour, Casey receives a life-saving heart transplant - and a rare second chance to begin again.

Three years later, Casey has become a withdrawn shell of her former self: she is estranged from her loved ones, afraid of open spaces and rides the line between legitimate and criminal work. The worst of her troubles come in the form of violent night terrors; so frightening that she resorts to extreme measures to keep herself from sleeping. When she can take no more, she embarks on a desperate search for the source of her dreams. ​In so doing, she makes a shocking discovery surrounding the tragic fate of the donor whose heart now beats inside her chest. As she delves deeper into the mystery of her donor, she realizes her dreams are not a figment of her imagination, but a real life nightmare.

I was initially attracted to this book as a nurse - I always like a good medical mystery. Also I have heard the stories/rumours of transplant recipients having memories of their donor, which the recipients never know of, typically. Dean Mayes is an ICU nurse and got the idea for this book from hearing some of these stories. He also researched case reports of murders where the recipients acquired memories actually helped solved the case.  Makes you think.

This book isn't out yet but is set to be published October 2015. Here is a trailer for it. There is also a Giveaway on Goodreads right now.  Put it on your TO READ list. Really good.

 Disclaimer: This Advanced Readers Copy was given to me for free in exchange for a review.