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Summary: exciting psychological thriller
Review: Doctor Jackson Maebry is the golden boy of San Francisco Memorial hospital. He is the chief resident in reconstructive surgery and the protégé of Dr. Peter Brandt, the head of the department. At a party given by Dr. Brandt's biotech company Genderm, he meets the beautiful Allie and for both of them it is love at first sight. They have four perfect months together before tragedy strikes.Jackson is summoned to emergency where a woman beaten and burned almost beyond recognition is struggling to stay alive. At first Jackson doesn't recognize it's Allie on the table and when he does he stays at her side until she wakes from her coma. When she awakens from her comatose state, she doesn't remember anything about the attack. For some reason, the lead detective on the case zooms in on Jackson as the prime suspect. When Jackson starts looking into Allie's past, he comes to a conclusion that sets him on a path that will change his life. Joshua Gilder's debut novel is an exciting psychological thriller with so many twists and turns that readers will have to read it in one session just to see how everything is finally resolved. The hero is a flawed person with many psychological problems but he lives his life to the fullest, which is only one of the reasons the reader will adore him. Though why he is singled out as the prime suspect besides being the victim's lover is not fully explained, GHOST IMAGE remains a strong tale that is unlike any other novel on the market today. Harriet Klausner
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Summary: Entertaining and suspenseful
Review: Fairly decent thriller about a plastic surgeon called to the ER one night when a severely burned and beaten woman is brought in. Though her face is mangled, he quickly realizes she is Allie, his lover. He manages to save her, but she is left in a coma for months while the police department searches for clues about what might have happened to her. When she finally wakes, she doesn't remember what happened. And though Jackson stays by her side, his love for her never faltering, Allie soon becomes obsessed about her appearance -- and about the fact her boyfriend and his boss have the tools and the skills to fix her face. Her obsession turns deadly -- and so does, in some ways, Jackson's own obsession. With her. All in all, a pretty original medical thriller. But this is Gilder's first novel and it really shows. The writing is good -- solid and well-developed. But, to put it simply, there's just too much of it. Which isn't the same thing as saying the novel is too long (although, that too), but more that sometimes sentences, paragraphs, or even whole chapters are superfluous. And, after awhile, I started skimming a bit. I wanted to find out what happened next, but was quickly becoming bogged down by the unnecessary parts. Still, ten times better than anything Robin Cook has put out in the last decade. Fans of the genre won't be disappointed.
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Summary: The most exciting new novelist since Scott Turow.
Review: Ghost Image is a tense and powerful novel which launches Joshua Gilder as the most exciting new novelist since Scott Turow debuted in 1988 with Presumed Innocent. Gilder distinguishes himself from many of today's top suspense writers: He cares deeply about his characters; and so does the reader. In Ghost Image, the shocking revelations are not just arbitrary plot manipulations; the action rushes forward as the reader penetrates the darkest and most painful parts of the human soul. Gilder can create the suspense of a Grisham, but Grisham may not consistently create characters of such potency as those found in Ghost Image. The human relationships are complex, the medical science is exact, and the pace is unrelenting. The book is an innovative medical thriller, but the sharpest scalpel is applied to cutting open the raw fears, ambitions and intimate desires that seethe through these poignant characters in a painful and uncommon love story. Ghost Image is a suspenseful, can't-put-it-down page turner. I read the book in a single all-night sitting, racing to reach the remarkable conclusion before the sun came up. You will love this book, and if you are like me, you will want more. Ghost Image gets my highest rating.
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Summary: Yeah, a new writer who can write!
Review: I am just here to jump on the Joshua Gilder bandwagon. I am so happy to have a new author to read. I love suspense thrillers, but find that most of the books I pick up are so poorly written I can't even finish them. I know it is a cliché to call Ghost Image a "page-turner" but it truly is one!!!! From beginning to end, I could not put this down. The first page grabs you, not with a murder (those come later) but with a scene that immediately gives you that sick-in-the-pit-of-your- stomach and a this-ain't-good event. The story unfolds against the backdrop of California and the world of plastic surgery, however this will also appeal to those who like the forensic mysteries that are popular now, it is technical, detailed, fascinating. The characters are interesting, flawed and well developed. Some of the secondary characters will be recognizable, but the main ones are truly unique and complicated.
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Summary: The guy cried at least a dozen times....too sensitive for me
Review: I bought the book because of the reviews I read on this site. I did not like the book. There were some hanging parts, action parts that I scoffed at and the guy didn't have the ego that a surgeon has especially plastic surgeons. I just don't understand how the other reviewers liked it so much. I almost didn't finish it. I actually put it down for a few days and picked it up only to see if something near the end would draw me in more. It didn't. The guy I really liked was a black detective with blue eyes. He was interesting for a bit.
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Summary: Plastic Surgery with a twist
Review: I don't usually think of plastic surgeons as subject matter for medical thrillers, but the author of this book does an excellent job of convincing me it is possible. I am a sucker for medical thrillers and when they are well written, I have a hard time putting them down. Gilder combines enough medical information to satisfy me with enough suspense to keep me going. I enjoyed this novel thoroughly and recommend it highly. If you're a fan of Robin Cook or Michael Crichton, you'll love Gilder.
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Summary: The Most Original Thriller in Years
Review: I have spent all my life reading thrillers and this is the most original one since Gorky Park. The description of the surgical procedure on the first page alone is worth the price of the book. Besides the unusual setting - in the world of plastic surgery, the plot is expertly (and most unusually of all - realistically) crafted to believably maintain the tension all the way to the end. The book is never predictable and never sloppily resorts to the fantastical. Besides the highly original plot and setting, the book gleams with sharp clean prose. This is one of the happiest surprises I have had in 25 years of reading this genre.
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Summary: A die-hard psychological thriller fan is very excited!
Review: I love to read--all types of books--but psychological thrillers and literary mysteries top my list. Ghost Image is going to push a few of my favorites a few rungs down because it meets all the requirements I'm looking for in a good book--riveting, original, imaginative, exciting, scary, inventive--let me stop here and simply say that I encourage anyone who loves a well-written and suspenseful yarn that not only entertains you, but makes you think--buy this book and pass it on to friends and family, too! I look forward to Mr. Gilder's next installment with excitement and great anticipation...
Barbara in West Bethesda, MD
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Summary: Clues inside a living patient
Review: If you like Patricia Cornwall or Kathy Reichs (who gives his book a great blurb, by the way), or even CSI, the TV show, you?re going to love Ghost Image. It?s got all the forensic intrigue, science and medicine, but instead of dead people, the clues are all hidden inside a living patient, and only discovered during an eight hour plastic surgery operation that is so amazingly portrayed you?ve got to read it to believe it. I showed it to a doctor friend of mine, and he said it was very realistic, and with all the surgeons and other specialists the author thanks in his acknowledgements, I guess he did his research very thoroughly. I?ve never read anything like it. Makes one think twice about having plastic surgery oneself, though it all turns out all right in the end ? the surgery that is. I don?t want to give away too much of the plot which has at least two most twists at the end than you?d ever expect, though they don?t leave you feeling cheated, like so many other mysteries. Instead you end with a very satisfying "Aha! Of course that?s what happened!"
Some people might figure it out sooner, but I didn?t until the final two pages. It?s not a "happily ever after" ending, but somehow I felt really uplifted and good in the end, because for all the bad stuff the characters go through, they end with a lot of hope. So, my two cents is, this is a great book. Read it.
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Summary: Bizarre tale of twisted psyches and perverted love.
Review: Joshua Gilder's first novel, "Ghost Image," is a strange amalgam. It is part medical mystery, part psychological thriller, and part crime novel. Unfortunately, these disparate elements do not come together to form a satisfying whole. The hero of "Ghost Image" is Jackson Maebry, a promising young plastic surgeon and protégé of the brilliant and successful Dr. Peter Brandt. Jackson's girlfriend, Allie Sorosh, is a beauty with a mysterious past whom Jackson has asked to be his wife. Allie puts Jackson off, and they have a terrible quarrel. Soon thereafter, Allie is admitted to the hospital in a coma, after being brutally beaten and burned almost to death. Who did this to Allie and why? Will Allie be able to recover from her horrible wounds, both external and internal? To make matters worse, the police begin to suspect that Jackson may have attacked Allie in a fit of rage. Gilder does a wonderful job with the medical elements in this novel. The information about how a plastic surgeon does his work is detailed and fascinating. The psychological elements are less expertly handled. The characters of Jackson, Allie and Brandt are muddled and they become more so as the novel progresses. Gilder's plot starts out promisingly, but it lapses into implausibility as the book reaches its melodramatic climax. "Ghost Image" had potential, but Josha Gilder ultimately does not succeed in delivering the goods.
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