David Pearson recently shared his thoughts on Asystole and said, 

“Francis O’Keefe captures hospital life with almost painful accuracy, the alarms, the rushed footsteps, the stressed staff. Into that realism she inserts Graeme Kilbride, a neurologist who works like a machine and feels like a void. What hooked me was how deeply the novel explores the ethics of discovery. When Powell’s post-death EEG shows memory recall, Kilbride views it as an opportunity while everyone else sees tragedy. That tension ripples through the rest of the story, especially when his ambition pushes him toward dangerous ideas. It feels like a psychological thriller wrapped inside a medical drama.” 

I’m pleased David connected with the hospital environment I wanted to portray. Showing the high-pressure, fast-paced world was important to me because it reflects the reality behind the story. Kilbride was created to be both brilliant and unsettling, and I wanted to explore how ambition and ethics clash in moments of discovery. Hearing that the psychological and medical elements kept readers hooked is encouraging and motivates me to keep writing stories with these complex layers.