a haunting exploration of the effects of lifelong shame.” -The New York Times “Martin leverages her own background as a doctor to great effect throughout, is equally insightful about many aspects of long-term female friendships, especially the blind spots that they often contain by necessity. PRAISED BY Creative Loafing, Shelf Awareness,, , The Charlotte Observer, the New York Post, and The New York Times. As it becomes evident that Emma must have known more than she revealed about circumstances that nearly derailed both their lives, Zadie begins to question everything she thought she knew about her closest friend.īY Southern Living, Elite Daily, and Writer's Digest Nick’s unexpected reappearance during a time of new professional crisis shocks both women into a deeper look at the difficult choices they made at the beginning of their careers. Their lives in Charlotte, North Carolina are chaotic but fulfilling, until the return of a former colleague unearths a secret one of them has been harboring for years.Īs chief resident, Nick Xenokostas was the center of Zadie’s life-both professionally and personally-during a tragic chain of events during her third year of medical school that she has long since put behind her. Now they’re happily married wives and mothers with successful careers-Zadie as a pediatric cardiologist and Emma as a trauma surgeon. Zadie Anson and Emma Colley have been best friends since their early twenties, when they first began navigating serious romantic relationships amid the intensity of medical school.

A debut novel set against a background of hospital rounds and life-or-death decisions that pulses with humor and empathy while exploring the heart’s capacity for forgiveness…

The Queen of Hearts by Kimmery Martin