Hi, my name is Dr. Elizabeth Brooks. I’m a physician and a surgeon. The reason I went to medical school is because I love to help people and I love mysteries. Technically, all physicians are diagnosticians and solve mysteries. A patient will come to the office with an array of symptoms and the physician will try to solve the mystery by making the right diagnosis after searching for clues through questions, exam, lab tests, x-rays, etc.

Diagnosticians are commonly found in medicine but can also be found in education and other careers. A good diagnostician requires someone with thorough knowledge, good intuition, great listening skills, attention to detail and critical thinking. The same can be said of a good detective. A good diagnostician is constantly assessing, listening, questioning and putting clues together.

A typical day for me will start early, usually around 5am. I’ll get up and head over to the hospital. I like to perform my surgeries as early in the day as possible. The hospital only has so many operating suites so it’s important to schedule early. After surgery and checking my patients in recovery, I’ll check on my patients in the hospital and then go to the office. There I’ll see patients, check test results and try to solve as many mysteries as I can. It’s a great feeling when someone comes in, not feeling well, and by deducing the situation properly, I help to make the patient feel well again.

Things have been a bit frustrating lately. I hate to even admit it, but a couple of my patients recently died. I pride myself on doing everything completely and in full control so it makes me crazy when I have an unexpected outcome. I feel so bad for the patient and family. Things occasionally are beyond our control, but when something happens without reason, I get concerned, real fast.

I’ve been stressing about these two patients, their deaths making no sense whatsoever. As I kept going over it, looking for reasons, I stressed even more and lost sleep and then I started dreaming. It’s possible they were stress dreams because one of my dead patients showed up. He spoke to me. Perhaps I was working out questions through my dreams, but then my patient started telling me things I wouldn’t know anything about. I’m afraid to think or even tell anyone I may be communicating with the dead through my dreams. I don’t want them to think I’m nuts.

But, it’s possible I am communicating with the dead. I did years ago. When I was younger, I was hit by a drunk driver. While I was in the hospital I started dreaming of many people. They talked to me in my dreams and told me their stories. It turns out they were people in the hospital who recently died. I never left my hospital bed, but the doctors taking care of me were sure surprised when I talked about their patients, the things that happened to them and the requests they made. The doctors made some families very happy when they were able to answer some very specific questions and tell them their dead family member loved them very much.

My parents weren’t happy and went a little wild. I had to go to a lot of doctors, including a psychiatrist to make sure I wasn’t nuts. The hospital doctors believed I knew things that I shouldn’t have known so they kept an open mind but my parents were so anxious I just stopped talking about it. I was able to push the dead away, back then, but now they’re coming back. They talk to me and want to help solve mysteries. This time, I’m going to have to let them in.

Giveaway: Leave a comment below for your chance to win one (1) print copy of Midnight Shift, limited to U.S. residents. Giveaway ends March 18, 2020. Good luck everyone!

Midnight Shift is the first book in the NEW “Dr Elizabeth Brooks” medical mystery series, released December 23, 2019.

When two patients of respected surgeon, Dr. Elizabeth Brooks, die under odd circumstances, she is threatened with loss of medical privileges, a malpractice suit and financial ruin. Elizabeth is determined to discover why her patients are having unexpected complications but her anxiety only escalates when handsome Detective Jake Wagner shows up in her office looking for information as part of a criminal investigation. Distressed, she begins to dream about her dead patients. Elizabeth has dreamt of the dead before, something she experienced after being hit by a drunk driver when she was young. For years after the accident, Elizabeth resisted the dreams and kept the dead away. But now, the dead are reaching out again. Realizing she needs help to save herself and her career, Elizabeth has no choice but to welcome them back and hope that sometimes the dead can protect the living.

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Meet the author
Linda Rawlins is an American writer of mystery fiction best known for her Misty Point Mystery Series, including Misty Manor, Misty Point, Misty Winter and Misty Treasure. She is also known for her Rocky Meadow Mystery Series, including The Bench, Fatal Breach and Sacred Gold. Her new novel, Midnight Shift has been recently released. Linda loved to read as a child and started writing her first mystery novel in fifth grade. She then went on to study science, medicine and literature, eventually graduating from medical school and establishing her career in medicine.

Linda Rawlins lives in New Jersey with her husband, her family and spoiled pets. She loves spending time at the beach as well as visiting the mountains of Vermont.

All comments are welcomed.