The Hand of Chance

David and Jonathan Horton were born as separate identical twins. Growing up 'best buddies' in a blue-collar Liverpool suburb, they squabble in their late teens when they fall for the same girl: Marilyn Cresby. But they both drop her and go their separate ways Jonathan to university for a science degree and David into the paparazzi world of photography and money. Several years later, David foolishly takes up with Marilyn again, and her macho husband plans to kill him.
An ambush is set up at night in a hotel car-park, but the wrong twin is shot. The bullet leaves Jonathan quadriplegic. David knows the accident is his fault and drowns his guilt in a drunken binge, but chokes and is left brain dead. Eventually, Jonathan rehabilitates and, now permanently in a wheelchair, returns to his university research post, leaving David hospitalized in a coma from which he is not expected to wake.
Later, when Jonathan's health fails, he needs a kidney transplant, but his handicap makes him ineligible for one. When his liver also fails, his surgeon suggests removing poison wastes from Jonathan's blood by cross-circulating it through his comatose twin, DavidIt isn't long before the surgeon has an even better idea.This is a gripping story from debut novelist John Saxby, who under his real name is a distinguished doctor himself, and an internationally recognised clinical microbiologist.