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Morbidity & Malice
Paperback
Series: The Screw Turns, Book 5
Mystery & ThrillerScience FictionGeneral Fiction
Publisher: Humphrey Archer
Published: Mar 16 2026
Pages: 168
Weight: 0.44
Height: 0.39 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
Where fate has a wicked sense of humor-and healthcare is its favorite playground.
The Screw Turns, Volume V plunges readers back into Humphrey Archer's deliciously dark world where every wish has consequences, every cruelty has a cost, and every act of arrogance eventually meets its match.
In this new collection of sharp, satirical, and irresistibly macabre tales, each story follows a flawed protagonist-bullies, bigots, quacks, hustlers, tycoons, cheats, and the casually cruel-as they collide with fate in settings ranging from emergency rooms to corporate offices, dental suites to drone platforms, kitchens to psychiatric wards. Inspired by real OSHA incidents, medical cases, and cultural superstitions, the stories may feel unbelievable... until you realize they could absolutely happen.
Here you'll meet:
- A healthcare mogul undone by his own vices-and a very unlucky massage.
- A journalist whose misinformation campaign ends in a spectacularly literal head-exploding moment.
- A militia plot gone wrong in the most ridiculous ways imaginable.
- A legacy-hire hospital administrator stalked by his past-and his victims.
- A church health ministry executive whose hypocrisy goes up in flames.
- A dentist whose nephew's disappearance is solved by a cadaver dog with perfect instincts.
- A herpetologist whose social climbing ends with a venomous twist.
- A school bully whose fate arrives by tailpipe.
- A COVID-denying shuttle driver whose final ride is apocalyptic.
- A narcissist whose emotional abuse meets needlepoint-level precision.
- A corrupt cop who learns why MRI machines and concealed pistols don't mix.
- A sleazy marketer annihilated at a gender reveal.
- Ghost employees, toxic antiques, exploding kitchens, angry witches, vengeful midwives, and more.
These are tragedies, yes-but smart, ironic, wickedly funny ones. Archer's medical realism keeps every story chillingly plausible, even when the universe itself seems to be meting out poetic justice.
Perfect for readers who enjoy:
✔ Dark humor with razor-sharp social commentary
✔ Medical fiction grounded in reality-but dripping in irony
✔ Dahl-esque comeuppance tales
✔ Stories where bullies, abusers, and grifters finally get what's coming
✔ Fast, gripping, endlessly surprising reads
The Screw Turns, Volume V is a scalpel-edged slice of tragicomedy: ruthless, clever, and impossible to put down.
Open the book-and watch the turn of the screw claim its next victim.
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