John Benedict, 1982, may put people to sleep at his day job, but off-duty, the Penn State College of Medicine alumnus and central Pennsylvania anesthesiologist writes medical thrillers that may keep them up at night.

His first two self-published books, "Adrenaline," and its sequel, "The Edge of Death," were so successful that Benedict was able to work with Oceanview Publishing in Florida for publication and distribution of his third book, "Fatal Complications," which was released in December.

Benedict’s books are available in the Penn State Health Milton S. Medical Center gift shop, with proceeds going back to the place he completed medical school, his internship, residency and cardiac anesthesia fellowship from 1978 to 1986.

Although he began writing in high school, starting a career and a family kept Benedict from pursuing his writing more until about 20 years ago. He was going through the standard anesthesia consent form with a patient who needed to have her appendix removed, and she got very upset about the list of risks and possible complications for the routine procedure. It sparked an idea for a novel.

Read more about Benedict – and what inspires his writing – in this Penn State Medicine article.