KARACHI, March 29: There is something about the medical profession and writing fiction. Saad Shafqat, a neurologist by profession, followed in the footsteps of his predecessors such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Somerset Maugham and Robert Cook with the publication his book Breath of Death, a medical thriller.

At the launch of his book on Friday evening, Dr Shafqat said the basic idea of his novel germinated as he encountered human drama in hospitals where in order to deal with the dramatic situation he himself became a character in that drama. Hence it was relatively easy for him to assume different characters while writing the medical thriller that he began to pen since 2004 onwards.

Moderated by Muneeza Shamsie, a well-known literary editor and critic, Breath of Death’s main protagonists are Asad Mirza, an inquisitive neurologist, and Nadia, an intelligent young medical student, who in the mode of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, attempt to uncover the reasons behind a spate of a rare form of encephalitis that suddenly begin to appear in their workplace, the Avicenna University Hospital. According to Ms Shamsie, the book has enough twists and turns to keep one hanging on till its last page.

The author then read out two excerpts from his book: the first one centred on the pecking order of doctors in a medical conference, an insightful and sarcastic passage, and the next one related to Nadia’s travel to the US to get brain tissue samples tested as she encounters immigration difficulties at the airport.

Considering the book talks about autopsies quite a few times, Dr Shafqat said there were issues pertaining to autopsies in Pakistan due to religious and cultural observances. “Families immediately want to bury their dead and dislike in dealing with how their loved ones have died. Then there is the stigma attached to it particularly if the victim has been involved in criminal or terrorist activities.”

The book launch inevitably veered off to cricket subjects particularly about Javed Miandad, whose autobiography Cutting Edge Dr Shafqat co-authored.

A sizeable number of people turned up at the launch. The evening was rounded off with a question and answer session in which someone from the audience suggested to Dr Shafqat that his next book should be factual medical stories since ‘fact is stranger than fiction’. To this, he responded that he wanted his next fictional work to be a dark comedy satire set in a hospital.

Now that should be something to look forward to indeed.