Book Four of the Phineas Mann Series By Mark Anthony Powers (New Release!)
In the latest instalment of Powers’s medical thriller series, we find our beloved main characters, Phineas and his wife Iris, a few years in the future. However, it’s not the idillic and peaceful setting we envisioned for Dr Mann, one made of happy memories and holidays in the sun… Phineas has in fact Parkinson’s disease.
The strong, energetic and resolute man, who pulled a whole hospital ward through the difficulties brought about by a terrible hurricane and subsequent blackout, is now a fragile little man, who gets weepy when he talks and has to wear a oxygen mask at night to help him breathe. Despite his poor health, Phineas is still perfectly conscious of his surroundings, and the fact that his wife Iris lost weight doesn’t elude him. Talking about a woman’s weight is like walking on egg shells, so Phineas tries to not to think about is too much; ‘maybe it’s just my impression’, he says to himself. But his wife’s weight loss becomes more and more evident and Phineas has to address it. While taking care of Phineas nowadays is a full-time job, and the couple is not getting any younger, Iris needs to seek medical attention.
Almost on a whim, Phineas had previously applied to take part in a Duke University clinical trial for patients with Parkinson’s disease, and he is eventually invited to enrol. It’s an experimental procedure and not an easy one, but Phineas can only benefit from it, because, in case of success, his life expectancy and quality will increase. If this does not happen for him, at least he would help future patients. While finalising all the tests he has to do before he can start, Iris comes back with her own test results: they are not a death sentence, but not positive either. She is offered a very risky treatment, which drives Phineas to utilise his medical expertise in an attempt to save her, while also saving himself. Will our beloved couple, fighting a terrible battle against two serious diseases, make it?
This time there are no hurricanes, or pandemics to stop, this time the story is much more personal. The clinical descriptions of a Grey’s Anatomy manual (without the medical jargon) are intertwined with a delicate plot made of everyday details and the common problems any couple that has been together for a long time encounters. This contributes to making Iris and Phineas more human, more real: we feel for them, we struggle with them and we definitely hope for the best, genuinely concerned for their wellbeing.
Powers’s style is light and well defined, with a prose that gets better and better with every book, creating a distinctive voice. This is, in my humble opinion, the best book of the series. For sure it’s the most personal one. Unfortunately, it might be the last – or one of the last – Phineas Mann novels, purely because he is getting old.
It’s never easy to let a character go, especially one I have grown fond of over the last couple of years.
This book is an absolute delight to read, and it would be really interesting to see what Powers can do with different characters in a non-medical setting, because I am sure he has the potential to produce pure fiction without any doctors involved, or even an enthralling thriller. Stay tuned to find out!
‘The Desperate Trials of Phineas Mann’ is available for purchase at: https://amzn.to/4aLNJqO
For more information on Mark’s work to date, visit his website: https://hawksbillpress.com
