Dissection

High stakes, breathless suspense, and real insider authenticity―a terrific debut."
— LEE CHILD, New York Times Bestselling Author AND 2020 BOOKER PRIZE JUDGE

“With a terrifying premise and riveting medical details, DISSECTION moves at a frantic pace.”
— TESS GERRITSEN, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR

DC heart surgeon Dr. Steven Leeds is suddenly besieged by a handful of immensely complicated heart attack and stroke cases, all caused by a rare arterial injury—a dissection. And all the victims have first received innocuous-looking cards announcing: “Your heart attack/stroke will arrive within one hour!”

Private detective Kirk Miner and FBI agent Jack Mulville investigate, and they immediately suspect Leeds' former lover, Dr. Silvana Moretti, a brilliant research scientist who harbors a grudge against all the victims. Then when prominent people in the U.S. government begin to receive these same threatening cards and almost immediately experience these same deadly cardiac emergencies, it falls to the unlikely team of three—the headstrong FBI agent, the gifted private investigator, and the brilliant but conflicted heart surgeon—to find the actual perpetrators and to snuff out a catastrophic plot that only the medically astute can divine.

Dr. Cristina LePort's story is vaguely reminiscent of the artfully nightmarish scenarios in Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp novels, combined with the fast-paced tempo of Robin Cook's medical thrillers. Her Dissection features page-turning suspense, action-packed climaxes, and thoughtful character development, set against a believable backdrop of medical science informed by her long career as a cardiologist. Her style, though accessible, is more sophisticated than superficial, and, with strong protagonists on both sides of the gender divide, appeals to both male and female readers.

DISSECTION is a taut thriller with complex characters that combines cutting-edge medical technology with horrific yet still believable terrorist plots.

DISSECTION represents her brilliant print debut.

Dr. Cristina LePort was born in Bologna, Italy, where she attended medical school before emigrating to the USA to complete her Internal Medicine residency at Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn and her Cardiology fellowship at West Los Angeles VA/UCLA.

She has been practicing medicine for more than 30 years as Dr. Cristina Rizza.

She currently resides in Orange County, California, with her husband, Peter LePort.

They have three grown children and three grandchildren.

Dissection is her first published novel.