When Robin Cook wrote Coma in 1977, the idea of hospital patients being incubated for their vital organs sounded like science fiction. Twenty years later, this gripping thriller about a thriving international black market in human hearts, livers and kidneys could come from tomorrow's "Nightline." Author Gerritsen was an internist before she switched her energies to writing, and her experience shows in every scene. When young surgical resident Dr. Abby DiMatteo assists at her first "harvest" (the removal of living organs from a patient declared legally brain dead) at Boston's posh Bayside Hospital, "she felt vaguely nauseated by the whine of the blade, the smell of bone dust," neither of which seem to bother the veterans. It's obviously a personal memory being mined for good fictional purposes. (Gerritsen wrote paperback romance novels before Harvest: Check out her Keeper of the Bride and Thief of Hearts.)


From Publishers Weekly
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Robin Cook is going to feel just swell after taking a look at Gerritsen's first novel. It's been 19 years since Cook published Coma as his own first novel, but that book's basic elements?as a tale of medical terror in which a feisty young female doctor in Boston foils a medical conspiracy involving the murdering of innocents to harvest their organs?are found in Gerritsen's novel as well. Along with the requisite amoral medical types goaded by greed, Gerritsen includes Russian mobsters, orphans at deadly risk, a ruthless industrialist, murders disguised as suicides, a bloody climax aboard a Russian freighter in Boston Harbor and some graphic surgical scenes. Surgical resident Abby DiMatteo is on the fast track at Boston's fictional Bayside Hospital. But after she disobeys orders so she can give a heart transplant to a failing 17-year-old instead of to a failing middle-aged, rich woman, her career options look slim. Fighting back against hospital administrators, shyster lawyers and violent thugs, Abby?spunky but angst-ridden and also rather whiny?finds major discrepancies in the records of Bayside's organ-transplant procedures. Shocked, she finally learns the truth, experiences a major betrayal and, in the climax, must herself face the final harvest. Gerritsen's crisp pacing and adept handling of the medical background?she's a retired internist?add sizzle to the tale, but her characters need life support, the climax is too drawn out and the final revelations will surprise only readers who move their lips. Major ad/promo; film rights sold to Paramount; simultaneous Simon & Schuster Audio; foreign rights sold in the U.K., Germany, Sweden, Holland, Finland, France, Korea, Denmark, Norway, Spain and Italy. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Gerritsen, a romance writer (e.g., Thief of Hearts, Harlequin, 1995) who will broaden her appeal with this thriller, tells a heart-stopping story of terror. While serving as a second-year surgical resident at Bayside Hospital, Abby DiMatteo meets 17-year-old Josh O'Day, who is desperately in need of a new heart. An accident victim with severe head trauma comes to Bayside and is a match. All systems are go, but at the last moment Nina Voss, beloved wife of zillionaire Victor Voss, arrives at the hospital for heart transplant surgery, and Josh goes back on hold?a clear violation of National Organ Registry policy. With the chief surgical resident, Abby engages in some fancy footwork, and Josh gets the heart after all. This is not pleasing to the Bayside cardiac team, the hospital bigwigs, and most of all Victor Voss, who begins a campaign to harass, discredit, terrorize, and ruin Abby. Nina Voss eventually gets another heart, but the organ's suspicious origins prompt Abbey to investigate, and the terror escalates to a truly surprising ending. This is a good spooker that will make for excellent summer reading. For most popular collections.?Dawn L. Anderson, North Richland Hills P.L., Tex.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Rarely does a woman look up from an operating table to see her fiancewielding a scalpel to harvest her liver for a transplant. Abby DiMatteo, second-year surgical resident at Boston's Bayside Hospital, has precisely that experience. The trouble starts when DiMatteo and her senior resident sidetrack a heart scheduled for the wife of a wealthy businessman and have it placed in a teenager. The businessman then launches a cruelly effective personal and professional campaign against DiMatteo. Meanwhile, the Russian mafia is carrying on an extremely profitable black market in human organs harvested from orphans who believe they are bound for adoption in the U.S. Detective Slug Katzka slowly comes around to DiMatteo's side and ultimately saves her from her lover's scalpel. Retired internist Gerritsen's first novel is a well-paced and smoothly written story that demonstrates she knows people as well as medicine. William Beatty


From Kirkus Reviews
Former internist Gerritsen debuts with a tale of medical suspense as taut and well-plotted as it is formulaic. Abby DiMatteo is a talented surgical resident at Boston's Bayside Hospital, with a thoracic-surgeon boyfriend on the transplant team and a shot at a coveted fellowship. But her future is threatened when she joins forces with the idealistic Chief Resident to make sure that a heart available for transplant goes to a deserving teen rather than to the wife of billionaire industrialist Victor Voss. Then, miraculously, Nina Voss gets a heart, too. When Nina develops a fever, Abby looks for the donor records and finds them missing. She calls the hospital where the harvest allegedly was done and is told the operation never took place, but the close-knit Bayside transplant team doesn't take her concerns seriously. Meanwhile, one surgeon commits suicide, and Abby discovers that two others have died suspiciously in the last six years. Could there be an illegal organ-procurement ring at the prestigious hospital? As Abby's suspicions rise, mysterious events cause her to lose her credibility: Accused of a mercy-killing, she is relieved of her duties. Abby and a sympathetic detective follow a string of clues and end up at a freighter docked in Boston Harbor, where they're shot at by Russian mobsters. They escape, but Abby is later abducted and taken back to the freighter. It turns out to be a prison where a number of youths--kidnapped from the former Soviet Union--are held until their organs are harvested as part of a large, vicious conspiracy. Help arrives eventually, but not until Abby herself is strapped to the operating table. Canny readers will guess what's up early on, but most won't care a bit. The pages turn themselves as this far-from-superhuman heroine tries, in vain, to convince the world that she's not paranoid: Everyone really is out to get her. (Film rights to Paramount; Literary Guild selection; Mystery Guild selection) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
James Patterson The best medical thriller I've read since Coma.

Stephen King If you've never read Gerritsen, figure in the price of electricity when you buy your first novel by her...'cause baby, you are going to be up all night.

Boston Globe Harvest left me clutching my head in an ecstasy of terror.


Review
USA Today Harvest will make your heart skip a beat.


Review
USA Today Harvest will make your heart skip a beat.


Book Description
Medical resident Dr. Abby Matteo is elated when the elite cardiac transplant team at Boston's Bayside Hospital taps her as a potential recruit. But faced with a tormenting life-and-death decision, Abby helps direct a crash victim's harvested heart to a dying teenager -- instead of the wealthy older woman who was supposed to receive it. The repercussions leave Abby shaken and plagued with self-doubt. Suddenly, a new heart appears, and the woman's transplant is completed. Then Abby makes a terrible discovery. The donor records have been falsified -- the new heart has not come through the proper channels. Defying the hospital's demands for silence, she begins her own investigation that reveals a murderous, unthinkable conspiracy. Every move Abby makes spawns a vicious backlash...and on a ship anchored in the waters of Boston harbor, the grisly truth lies waiting.


Simon & Schuster
In a novel of harrowing suspense and brilliantly crafted plot twists, author Tess Gerritsen draws on her years of experience as a doctor to deliver an explosive thriller that makes her an indisputable star. HARVEST vividly portrays a young woman doctor challenging a world where medical miracles and greed fuel a lethal conspiracy-and the bright lights of the O.R. conceal the ultimate corruption of genius. Unerringly authentic, with scalpel-sharp characterizations that rival Patricia Cornwell's HARVEST is an astounding debut.... HARVEST TESS GERRITSEN For Dr. Abby DiMatteo, the road to Boston's Bayside Hospital began with a tragic accident-and the desperate, awful weeks that followed as she watched her little brother, Pete, lose his battle to live. Despite her small-town roots and lack of money, Abby pushed through college and medical school, each achievement strengthening her ambition to reach higher. Now, immersed in the grinding fatigue of her second year as a surgical resident, she's elated when the hospital's elite cardiac transplant team taps her as a potential recruit. But Abby soon makes an anguished, crucial decision that jeopardizes her entire career. A car crash victim's healthy heart is ready to be harvested; it is immediately cross-matched to a wealthy private patient, forty-six-year-old Nina Voss. Abby and chief resident Vivian Chao hatch a bold plan to make sure that the transplant goes instead to a dying seventeen-year-old boy who is also a perfect match. The repercussions are powerful and swift; Dr. Chao resigns, bowing under the combined fury of the hospital's top staff and Nina Voss's outraged husband. Abby is shaken but unrepentant-until she meets the frail, tormented Nina. Then a new heart for Nina Voss suddenly appears, her transplant is completed, and Abby makes a terrible discovery. The donor records have been falsified-Nina's heart has not come through the proper channels. Defying Bayside Hospital's demands for silence, Abby, with Vivian Chao's help, plunges into an investigation that reveals an intricate, and murderous, chain of deceptions. Every move Abby makes spawns a vicious backlash... and, in a ship anchored in the stagnant waters of Boston Harbor, a final, grisly discovery lies waiting.... As compelling as the best Michael Crichton of Michael Palmer, more provocative than tomorrow's headlines, HARVEST is a mesmerizing read-and Tess Gerritsen proves herself to be a new master of first-class suspense fiction.


About the Author
Tess Gerritsen left a successful practice as an internist to raise her children and concentrate on her writing. She gained nationwide acclaim for her first novel of medical suspense, the New York Times bestseller Harvest; she followed her debut with the bestsellers Life Support, Bloodstream, and Gravity, all available from Pocket Books. Her most recent bestselling novel is The Surgeon. Tess Gerritsen lives in Maine.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

For Dr. Abby DiMatteo, the road to Boston's Bayside Hospital began with a tragic accident - and the desperate, awful weeks that followed as she watched her little brother, Pete, lose his battle to live. Despite her small-town roots and lack of money, Abby pushed through college and medical school, each achievement strengthening her ambition to reach higher. Now, immersed in the grinding fatigue of her second year as a surgical resident, she's elated when the hospital' elite cardiac transplant team taps her as a potential recruit. But Abby soon makes an anguished, crucial decision that jeopardizes her entire career. A car crash victim's healthy heart is ready to be harvested; it is immediately cross-matched to a wealthy private patient, forty-six-year-old Nina Voss. Abby and chief resident Vivian Chao hatch a bold plan to make sure that the transplant goes instead to a dying seventeen-year-old boy who is also a perfect match. The repercussions are powerful and swift; Dr. Chao resigns, bowing under the combined fury of the hospital's top staff and Nina Voss's outraged husband. Abby is shaken but unrepentant - until she meets the frail, tormented Nina. Then a new heart for Nina Voss suddenly appears, her transplant is completed, and Abby makes a terrible discovery. The donor records have been falsified - Nina's heart has not come through the proper channels. Defying Bayside Hospital's demands for silence, Abby, with Vivian Chao's help, plunges into an investigation that reveals an intricate, and murderous, chain of deceptions.

FROM THE CRITICS

USA Today

Harvest will make your heart skip a beat.

Boston Globe

Harvest left me clutching my head in an ecstasy of terror.

Publishers Weekly

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Robin Cook is going to feel just swell after taking a look at Gerritsen's first novel. It's been 19 years since Cook published Coma as his own first novel, but that book's basic elementsas a tale of medical terror in which a feisty young female doctor in Boston foils a medical conspiracy involving the murdering of innocents to harvest their organsare found in Gerritsen's novel as well. Along with the requisite amoral medical types goaded by greed, Gerritsen includes Russian mobsters, orphans at deadly risk, a ruthless industrialist, murders disguised as suicides, a bloody climax aboard a Russian freighter in Boston Harbor and some graphic surgical scenes. Surgical resident Abby DiMatteo is on the fast track at Boston's fictional Bayside Hospital. But after she disobeys orders so she can give a heart transplant to a failing 17-year-old instead of to a failing middle-aged, rich woman, her career options look slim. Fighting back against hospital administrators, shyster lawyers and violent thugs, Abbyspunky but angst-ridden and also rather whinyfinds major discrepancies in the records of Bayside's organ-transplant procedures. Shocked, she finally learns the truth, experiences a major betrayal and, in the climax, must herself face the final harvest. Gerritsen's crisp pacing and adept handling of the medical backgroundshe's a retired internistadd sizzle to the tale, but her characters need life support, the climax is too drawn out and the final revelations will surprise only readers who move their lips. Major ad/promo; film rights sold to Paramount; simultaneous Simon & Schuster Audio; foreign rights sold in the U.K., Germany, Sweden, Holland, Finland, France, Korea, Denmark, Norway, Spain and Italy. (Sept.)

Library Journal

Gerritsen, the author of several romance tales (e.g., Thief of Hearts, Harlequin, 1995), has written a medical thriller that has her publicist ablaze with anticipation.

BookList - William Beatty