Moral Injuries

The gripping new novel from the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling author

By: Christie Watson

Narrated by: Miranda Raison

'Compulsively readable' SUNDAY TIMES
'A superior medical thriller' GUARDIAN
'Darkly gripping' OBSERVER

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

Olivia, Laura and Anjali couldn't be more different. Inseparable since the first day of medical school, their bond has remained unbreakable. Years ago, they promised nothing would come between them - including the wild university party that forced them to make a deadly choice.

Now working as doctors in high-pressure jobs, with lives and families of their own, their secret binds them tighter still. But when an eerily similar tragedy affects their teenage children, the choice the three women face may not be one their friendship can survive . . .©2024 Christie Watson

Critic reviews

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

[A] superior medical thriller... a thoughtful, humane and complex examination of ambition, betrayal, moral obligation, and ethical grey areas personal and professional. (Laura Wilson)

Compulsively readable (Joan Smith)

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)

Compelling

[A] must read.

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)