early 2027 · Debut Novel
Mirror
Games
Love doesn’t stand a chance when two people are racing to the top
This dark romantic thriller is the debut novel from surgeon and novelist, Norman Waterhouse. The novel is set inside the world of both plastic surgery and fierce Olympic competition, where two people — obsessed with being first — discover that love will be the first casualty of glory.
About the Book
Jack needs to be the first. Emily needs to win. But glory comes at a price. It will destroy them both.
Mirror Games explores the dark side of plastic surgery and the intense nature of competitive sport. It will appeal to fans of Double Fault by Lionel Shriver, and Jed Mercurio’s Bodies and Cardiac Arrest
Jack Peterson is a Plastic Surgeon at a prestigious London Hospital. His need for glory drives him to bend protocol, and ethics, to perform the first face transplant in the UK. But his newfound celebrity lifestyle brings the usual temptations and he soon finds his world intersects with the criminal underbelly of London. His patient with a new face is Leo. A cocaine dealer on the run from a gangland drug war. Leo’s new identify offers him a chance of a fresh start.
Jack’s girlfriend is Emily Robbins. A triathlete. She is driven to win Gold at the Olympics for Team GB, but her obsession to be first leaves little space for the compromises demanded by love. Emily wants to win so she can right her family’s history, but her place on Team GB is not secure, and a disastrous trial event leads to her deselection. She is left with no choice but to invoke her father’s nationality, and compete for Australia.
The Olympic final sees injuries, accidents, and an act of selfless honour. Emily crosses the tape as a champion, but her victory is pyrrhic. She is disgraced like her father before her, and a decades-old family secret is revealed that leaves her undone.
As their worlds implode and dreams turn to dust, Emily and Jack discover who they really are.
Jack and Emily’s story is tracked by Sean Daley, a journalist and ex-classmate of Jack’s with an agenda of his own.
For fans of
Double Fault — Lionel Shriver
and
Bodies & Cardiac Arrest — Jed Mercurio
genre
Dark romance and thriller · Debut fiction
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