Under the Knife

Near the start of this suspenseful if uneven thriller from Parsons (Doing Harm), Dr. Rita Wu, an assistant professor of surgery at the University of California (San Diego), wakes up one morning, naked, strapped to an operating table, with no idea how she got there. Soon she hears a voice in her head, a voice that apparently no one else can hear and that controls her mind. The voice belongs to tycoon Morgan Finney, a powerful inventor. As Rita lies helpless on the table, a man who claims to be Morgan Finney tries to assure her that the voice she hears is real—and they need to talk about his wife, Jenny. After this harrowing opening setup, the pace slackens, slowed by too many points of view, including that of Rita’s spurned lover, Dr. Spencer Cameron, until the tight ending. The supporting characters may be flat, but Rita makes a great doctor-in distress, and Parsons does a good job dramatizing how patients often become commercial cogs in medical institutions. Agent: Al Zuckerman, Writers House. (Feb.)