While finishing his medical degree, Josh Bazell also found the time to complete his first novel, a crime thriller called Beat the Reaper about a mob hitman turned doctor. Bazell wanted to be a professional writer since the age of nine, but then a few years later science became his serious interest. Bazell has now managed to attain both goals. Josh Bazell has a BA in writing from Brown University and a MD from Columbia University. He is currently a medical resident at the University of California, San Francisco, and is working on his second novel.