Physicians face many ethical dilemmas in wartime. Should scarce medical supplies be used to save an enemy’s life? What if saving that life could have disastrous personal consequences? These are the types of moral quandaries facing Dr. Franz Adler in the latest novel by Vancouver emergency-room doctor Daniel Kalla.

The prolific Kalla is best known for medical thrillers such as Pandemic and Blood Lies. The Far Side of the Sky, his seventh book, is more of a love story than a suspense novel, although it is a definite page-turner.

The hero, Adler, flees Nazi-controlled Austria just before the outbreak of the Second World War and ends up toiling in a Shanghai hospital where he treats fellow Jewish refugees. One day a German diplomat brings in his dying wife for an operation no other doctor in the city can perform. If Adler agrees to do the surgery, he risks being shunned by the Jewish community, losing his job, and having his handicapped daughter barred from attending school. What to do?

Adler’s love interest, Eurasian nurse Soon Yi “Sunny” Mah, faces a different dilemma when she must tend to the Japanese soldier who murdered her father and tried to rape her. Sunny realizes she can surreptitiously kill the soldier by administering an overdose of morphine. What to do?

Without these dilemmas, the book would be merely a familiar tale of good guys (Jewish refugees and their Chinese friends) versus bad guys (Nazis and Japanese soldiers) in an exotic setting. Instead, the medically inspired ethical questions introduce shades of grey into the story, allowing the characters to stop being predictable and start being interesting.

The Far Side of the Sky is told in plain language with a brisk plot that may be far too sentimental for many readers. Love affairs do abound. But the book also has weightier aspects, prompting readers to ponder how they would act if handed the power to kill or cure a hated enemy.