Doctor Frigo

Doctor Frigo is a 1974 novel by Eric Ambler.

Plot[]

Dr. Ernesto Castillo is a young, competent, cynical physician living and practicing in his native land, a fictional South American "coffee republic". His nickname, "Dr. Frigo", means, literally, "Dr. Frozen-Meat", which refers to his clipped, unsympathetic demeanor with patients and colleagues. He is also the son of a left-wing revolutionary activist who was assassinated several years previously, while leading an uprising against the ruling junta, when Castillo was just beginning his medical training at a prestigious medical school in a wealthier part of the world.

The father's fellow leaders of the failed revolution, now in exile, are hoping to re-instigate the revolution now that oil has been discovered in the country. Their leader, who was a close friend of Dr. Castillo's father, comes to Dr. Castillo as a patient, with some puzzling symptoms. At the same time, his father's former comrades seek to recruit him: as the son of the assassinated leader, he would be a useful figurehead to lead the next revolt.^[1]

Dr. Castillo discovers that his new patient's illness is more than just an excuse for contacting him: in fact the patient has incipient amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, familiar to readers today as the same neurodegenerative illness which afflicted Stephen Hawking and Lou Gehrig), and that the patient will soon be unable to lead any political movement. When the other would-be revolutionaries perceive the progressive degeneration, it becomes even more urgent for them to recruit Dr. Castillo to their cause to replace the ailing charismatic leader. At the same time, agents of the nation's government compel Dr. Castillo to meet with the revolutionaries, in order to help them (the government's agents) monitor their (the revolutionaries') activity - effectively, to serve as a spy. Caught between the government's threats and his professional obligations to his patient (including confidentiality), he reluctantly agrees to work with the revolutionaries.

Eventually, Dr. Castillo learns that his patient, not the junta, ordered his father's assassination. Before Dr. Castillo can decide what to do about this, the patient is himself assassinated by a traitor within his group. Happily relieved of the need to resolve his dilemma, Dr. Castillo returns to his medical practice and his fiancée.

Reception[]

It is regarded as one of Ambler's best works.^[2][3]

Kirkus Reviews described the book as "urbane, amusing, cautionary and threateningly urgent".^[4]

References[]