Dr. John on Assignment

The author has drawn on his many adventures in and out of his true profession, Surgery...to craft a tale of some odd adventures. It hadn't begun that way, but he was gradually drawn into a life in Cold War espionage, starting with a medical humanitarian stint gone awry, maybe askew. He'd been volunteered to go on a "do good" mission to war-torn Vietnam and while there, found himself enamored of a gorgeous creature named Gigi...and her ilk. Probably an intelligence agent posted to the Vietnamese "incident," she teamed up in a loose sense with our protagonist. Many fascinating real-life characters populate the book, each contributing to the adventure and at times some excitement. Then as one thing led to another, Dr. John visited medical colleagues in Moscow and while there was abducted for his own safety. His "doings"...mostly true, went from one scenario to another, even witnessing the botched assassination of a world leader. It makes for captivating story while raising so many questions...did it really happen, did he really do that? That's for the reader to decide. This adventure novel, a "fictionalized autobiography," reads easily and flows from one situation to another. And the reader may learn how one goes from Polaroid to Kodachrome.