How a Boston Physician Conquered the Thriller Genre

When Freida McFadden self-published her first novel, “The Devil Wears Scrubs,” more than a decade ago, she figured it would mark both the start and the end of her literary career.

McFadden, a doctor who treats brain disorders, had a demanding day job, and was raising two small children. But she’d always wanted to write fiction. So to entertain herself at night, she wrote a heavily autobiographical novel about a medical resident who is overworked and humiliated by a domineering supervisor.

“I thought, maybe I’ll publish this book, maybe a thousand people will buy it, and I’ll be done, end of my author story,” McFadden said from her home outside Boston, where she lives with her husband, an engineer; their two children, now 13 and 17; and a cat named Ivy.

“That did not happen,” she added.

Eleven years, 23 books and more than 6 million copies later, McFadden has become a seemingly permanent fixture on the best-seller list. She is currently the top-selling thriller writer in the United States, beating brand names like James Patterson, David Baldacci and John Grisham so far this year, according to Circana BookScan.

Her addictive psychological thrillers are plastered across Amazon’s best seller rankings — on Friday, she held the top spot on the Kindle best-seller list, and had six novels in the top 50. She also sells enormous quantities in print, not only in brick and mortar bookstores, but in grocery and pharmacy chains like Kroger, Aldi and Albertsons.

After a decade of self publishing, McFadden signed a series of deals with Sourcebooks’ mystery and thriller imprint, Poisoned Pen Press, which has acquired print rights to 15 of her books, a mix of new and backlist titles. Since last August, Poisoned Pen has released seven, with two more due out this fall. It’s an unusually packed publication schedule for a single author, but the pace barely satisfies McFadden’s insatiable readers, who call themselves “McFans.”