From the first draft of The Dose Makes the Poison, an enemies-to-friends-to-lovers romance between a surgeon and a journalist, in the midst of a Gilded Age small town murder mystery.
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“Well, it’s kind of a funny story. This fella—Alexis St. Martin—fur trapper up in Michigan territory about fifty or sixty years back—he takes an accidental shotgun blast to the gut.”
Dr. Hedgepeth paused in his speech, as if it had only just occurred to him most people might not consider a shotgun blast to the gut funny.
Sebastian Nothwell 