Bookstore

CRIME/MEDICAL/SUSPENSE/
SOUTHERN/THRILLER/
WHODUNIT MYSTERY
fresh frozen
In this third medical thriller by award winning author and practicing physician Darden North, human reproductive tissue becomes a fatal commodity. In Fresh Frozen, a young policeman and his tormented wife fail miserably to produce a family, finding themselves outcasts in the renewed baby boom sweeping the United States. Suddenly there is one last hope for them: a catalogue of human embryo and egg donors peddled by a woman whose standards are easily dismissed for the right price.
 
Pursuing their futile attempts to become parents has nearly cost the wife her life and pushed the couple to the brink of bankruptcy. This purportedly last chance for Wesley and Carrie Sarbeck to satisfy their place as parents in Middle America unknowingly tosses them in the midst of a grisly murder plot, the world of Hollywood celebrities, and a heist of freshly frozen human embryos.
 
The lives of Sarbeck, international superstar Allyn Saxton, and southern socialite Cheryl Choice unwittingly collide at the Van Deman Center, a state-of-the-art clinic for the treatment of infertility. Housed in a once decaying building complex just north of Jackson, Mississippi, the facility becomes saturated with not only the most modern of medical technology but also a network of security cameras hidden in unconventional places.
 
While Tinker Murtagh, an Internet voyeur and thief breaks through the firewalls of cyberspace to complete his surveillance, each of the three women has her own reason for entering the Center. However, as a result of subjecting herself to a concoction of hormones and surgical procedures, one of the three is gruesomely murdered in an intriguing spiral of human greed, mental anguish, and medical science.
 
Throughout the novel’s fast-paced suspense and character-rich dialogue, North reveals how medical ethics can easily be discarded as he allows even comical, endearing characters to meet tragedy – tragedy necessary to preserve the dark secrets of the Van Deman Center of Reproductive Technology.
Read A Review:

FRESH FROZEN by Darden North, MD is easily one of the best books I’ve ever read.  The twists are expertly crafted, the characters are believable and the plot is enthralling!  I love a book where the author takes me to uncharted territory—Dr. North does just that! In FRESH FROZEN, the reader is taken into the territory surrounding infertility and the measures some people will take to end a painful chapter in their lives.

Dr. North explains procedures the reader needs to understand, but not in so much detail as to be superfluously boring. If anything I was intrigued by his descriptions! 

There were a few times in reading this novel where I wondered how these aspects of the story were going to come together.  Dr. North did not let me down. When he brought them together, it all seemed flawless—a masterful job!! 

This story had it all! I cried sometimes, laughed out loud sometimes, scratched my head in wonder a few times and then got an ending I did NOT see coming!  It was a great read and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for something a little different. 

One word of warning though: Do not get cocky reading this one. Just when you THINK you have it all figured out, you find out you couldn’t have been more wrong!

Laine Estep


Darden North has delivered with his latest. FRESH FROZEN is no quick-and-easy "beach" read, but instead makes the reader pause, look deep inside, and question his own ethical and moral standards. North is a talented writer.

Susan O’Bryan, The Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, MS


North has a talent for creating both believable and absorbing characters. This novel was made for the screen.

Denise Grones, Delta Magazine


FRESH FROZEN should come with a warning label: Insomnia and repetitive motion disorder caused by rapid page turning may result.

Kathy Spurlock, Executive Editor, The News-Star, Monroe, LA