The Healing Knife

Travel Guide

A journey of a medical thriller from London to France

The section of France is perhaps the strongest location in the novel as this is part of her journey in more ways than one. She drives from Calais to France and across the region of Normandy:

The author speaks of France:

‘This is the setting for the third part of The Healing Knife, where the protagonist, cardiac surgeon Rachel, damaged both physically and mentally by a traumatic event, goes to spend two weeks with only a dog for company before she is joined by the owner, who has seen her need for solitude, rest, healing and time to think – things for which her life up to now has had little space. She works in the garden,  she falls asleep on the sunny terrace; she walks the dog, and goes to market, and meets the neighbours. She reads, but there isn’t a medical textbook or a learned article in sight. She explores the town, in particular the supermarket, and savours the local produce. Warmth and peace, fun and friends, are some of the things that her life has lacked, and bit by bit the atmosphere of rural France in summer starts a thaw, an appreciation of all she has denied herself.’