"Trusted surgeon. Loving wife. Murderer? Before my world came crashing down, I had it all. The successful career I dreamed of. The beautiful red-brick home where I could relax in front of the fire. The handsome, devoted husband whose blue eyes and charming smile always made me feel safe. As I call time of death, my voice is steady. My colleagues stand hushed around me, their eyes on me, confused, concerned. I have never lost a patient until today....

"For all the hospital dramas that dominate the ratings on television or awe-inspiring medical stories we might hear, most of us have no conception of the daily, herculean efforts of trauma surgeons. A good trauma surgeon must be a conductor presiding over an orchestra of healthcare providers as their patients cling to life by a thread. They are also a steely quarterback who can't be rattled when they throw an interception-lingering on a past failure...

British science writer Fitzharris slices into medical history with this excellent biography of Joseph Lister, the 19th-century “hero of surgery.” Lister championed the destruction of microorganisms in surgical wounds, thus preventing deadly postoperative infections. This was a radical approach inspired by French microbiologist and chemist Louis Pasteur’s discovery of bacteria. Lister, whose Quaker father introduced him to the wonders of the...