The Bottom Line: An essential medical thriller that boldly tackles cults of personality and the threat of widespread medical disinformation within a psychologically terrifying plot.
Dr. Mark Lin first appeared in one of 2024’s best medical thrillers, Doctor Lucifer. Anthony Lee’s followup, Toxic MInds, begins as Lin is discharging Shannon Dixon, a patient he’s treating in an Orange County-area hospital. Soon after, Shannon, who is pregnant and worried about the effects of a medication on her unborn child, calls him with more questions. But before he can finish his consultation, Shannon’s life is abruptly ended by an apparent suicide bombing attack.
Shannon’s death hits Lin hard. The suicide bomber’s ominous declaration – “Purity is mine!” – is ingrained in his mind. Soon after, another patient reveals to Dr. Lin that she’s part of a secret community called The Path to Purity, and some of the language she uses is too close to that of the suicide bomber to be a coincidence. Lin decides to take matters in his own hands by visiting the OC Wellness Garden, a twice-a-week gathering where Lin’s patient was purportedly recruited into the cult.
Lin enters a world where medical disinformation is both rampant and deadly. Cult leaders declare the medical industrial complex a sham. Vaccines and prescription drugs are allegedly part of a plot to create wealth for the few and keep humanity in the dark about natural cures. Meanwhile, the hospital’s Chief of Internal Medicine reports a widespread disturbing trend among the patient population in general – patients refusing standard-of-care treatments or peddling unproven theories. As the body count rises, Lin becomes more determined than ever to penetrate the cult’s inner sanctum and uncover the truth.
Lee tells the story from Dr. Lin’s point of view, a narrative choice that is especially effective while Lin is undercover. The tension created as Lin pretends to be a devout member of the order – even as every “fact” relayed seems to be a personal and professional affront to everything he has devoted his life to – is exhilarating. The effect is multiplied when cult leaders begin prescribing potentially deadly rituals for Acolytes of the Middle Circle — including dangerous “body cleansing” and “anything goes” sexual slavery. Needless to say, Lin must endure equally precarious “training” in order to prove his loyalty and gain entrance into the cult’s inner sanctum.
In an age when medical disinformation has been both demystified and accelerated by the rise in social media, Toxic Minds is a timely book that imagines how cults might be manipulated by powerful entities. Both directly and thematically, Lee poses questions about the similarities and differences between leaders like Charles Manson and Gandhi, while also exposing just how susceptible ordinary humans are to charismatic leaders. It’s a book that entertains as deftly as it showcases the relationship between people who have power and those who only seek self-improvement, whatever the means.
