The Dismantling is a novel that takes a while to get to the point. The synopsis, that there’s a organ donation gone wrong, has all the elements of a great fast paced thriller. Unfortunately, the characters are not really fleshed out enough in order to get behind their activities in this novel.

Simon is a young med school drop out who was given the job of a lifetime – setting up organ matches for large sums of money. With piling debts, the lure of cash is too much for his moral debate, and he successfully brokers enough deals to see him come close to financial freedom.

When his boss, DaSilva, moves in to the lucrative liver transplant territory, he hesitates for a millisecond before establishing a match for a has been football player, who shows know will to live, beyond that it would make his team mates and wife happy to stay alive.

The organ match is a young Californian, who is sparse on details, and in the world of illegal organ deals, that’s fine with Simon and his team. But when Maria turns up in a rival hospital, people start to ask questions about how she received those scars. What follows are chapters of suspicion and some rather boring flashbacks to Simon’s family life, which were not endearing enough to make you like him enough to care what happens to him.