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In Mercy 6, David Bajo's courageous new medical thriller, four people collapse dead in the same instant within a newly renovated Los Angeles hospital. Dr. Mendenhall, the woman who is head of the emergency room, isn't convinced the cause of death is a contagion. But it's in the interests of the hospital administrators -- and of the world at large -- for people to think that it is. If the world knew the truth there could only be widespread panic. The hospital is immediately locked down. Information is suddenly being strictly controlled. Government troops encircle the hospital to enforce the quarantine, and other bodies arrive in ER. Working with an ally in pathology and a colleague outside the hospital, Mendenhall develops her understanding that what has taken these lives has global implications . . . and whatever it is, it's not a virus.

David Bajo was raised on the California-Mexico border and has worked as a journalist and translator. He is the author of Panopticon and The 351 Books of Irma Arcuri. He teaches writing at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, where he lives with his wife, the novelist Elise Blackwell, and their daughter.