A THRILLER FROM THE FRONT LINES OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE
Some lives cost
too much to save.
The Devil's Ledger. The debut novel by Ryan Herrington
When an algorithm decides who gets the ambulance, one paramedic becomes the only variable it cannot predict.
Former Denver paramedic
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10 years on the streets
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Inspired by real 911 calls
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Former Denver paramedic - 10 years on the streets - Inspired by real 911 calls -
Written by a former paramedic.
Inspired by real calls.
I wrote The Devil's Ledger because I've seen real people get reduced to line items.
After a decade as a paramedic in Denver, I've watched algorithms prioritize lifesaving care while ambulances idle at the curb. This book is a warning disguised as a thriller. The systems in these pages are not invented. They are already in motion. I just gave them a body count.
The Devil’s Ledger
Oliver Adams has been a Denver paramedic for sixteen years. He has triaged gunshot victims in apartment stairwells, kept cops alive long enough to reach the trauma bay, and fought for his life in rooms that still smelled like burnt gunpowder.
When the algorithm decides who is worth saving, one paramedic becomes the only variable the system cannot predict.
The Knife & Gun Club was the grim but enduring nickname for the emergency department at Denver General Hospital, now Denver Health. It emerged in the 1980s and early ’90s, when the ER became one of the busiest urban trauma centers in the country. Weekend nights often looked like combat triage: stabbings, gunshots, assaults, overdoses, domestic violence.
It was never meant to be flippant. It was a survival tactic. A hard truth carried with dark humor so it didn’t crush the people who had to live with it.