Ghost Image

Rating:
Summary: An absolute MUST-READ!
Review: This is an absolutely amazing novel!
First, I'm a plastic surgeon myself and I can tell you that the scenes of the heroine's surgery are absolutely authentic.
Second, I live in San Francisco, and Gilder really captures the beautiful and sometimes weird character of the city.
Finally, I'm a big Raymond Chandler-Ross McDonald fan (OK, I know that dates me, but it's true), and this is one of the few mysteries I read in the ten or so years which I would say belongs in the same exalted category. John D Macdonald is up there too, and a few others. But it's amazing that someone - apparently a first time author - could come along in 2002 and so perfectly capture the feeling and atmosphere of those classics while at the same time giving it a completely modern ring. There were so many times when the writing made me think of Ross Macdonald, the throw-away lines that leave you startle you because they're so succinct and perfect, like when the hospital pathologist remarks over the corpse of the hero's friend,
"Too bad we haven't been able to do anything about the death rate."
"What?" asks the hero, confused.
"The death rate," says the pathologist. "It's still one per person."
Then there are all these Chandler/McDonald-type similes, as when the hero, who feels he's betrayed his lover, remarks that his pleas fell "into the silence between us like worthless coins down an empty well." Then there are just the beautiful descriptive passages, which are extraordinarily expert for a beginning novelist, and the gritty and entirely convincing descriptions of the hero's operations.
Ghost Image is one those rare mysteries these days that is simply a pleasure to read, every line, from beginning to end. Read it and enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing!!
Review: This is one of these rare books, that has it all: A gripping thriller, an incredible love story and an amazing novel, that keeps you thinking long after you finished it.
The prose is stunning - it is complex, yet it flows beautifully. This is an author who dares to leave stick figures behind him but instead creates intriguing characters. This is an author who dares to raise important questions and doesn't give quick answers. This is more than just a really good book - this is a jewel.

Rating:
Summary: Compelling
Review: This thriller kept me up late at night - the highest compliment I can pay a book. It provides a unique and fascinating glimpse into the plastic surgeon's art, with graphic descriptions of operations that will curl your toes, at the same time as they keep you turning the page. Gilder ratchets up the psychological tension with his tautly written prose, and provides a convincing cast of suspects to keep you guessing right up until the end. Joshua Gilder knows his stuff, and he knows how to write!

Rating:
Summary: Ghost Image
Review: This was a very intriguing book. But it was a little predictable, where it was love at first sight and everything was going so well and then tragedy struck, having Jackson's poor Allie beaten and burned struggling for her life.
The detective in the story zooms in on Jackson as a prime suspect. But in the end of the book it doesn't explain why Jackson was the prime suspect besides being Allie's lover. This left me hanging just a little bit in the end.
I loved how Joshua Gilder made the hero so flawed, with many psychological problems, but he shows that he lives life to the fullest and also shows what the world is really like. And this makes you just adore the him.
I enjoyed the many twists and turns the writer decided to take in the book. The way it was written, you couldn't stop reading this book, because it just kept you wanting to know what the final results were going to be.
This book in my opinion was very well written, and I would recommend it to everyone. This book is unlike any other that I have read, and it has become one of my favorites.

Rating:
Summary: Graphic but gripping
Review: When Plastic surgeon Jackson Maebry is called to attend an emergency, he finds to his horror that the battered and burned young woman is his lover, Allie.A frantic race begins to save her life and to literally piece her back together.After other surgeons have mended her broken bones and skin, Jackson begins to do massive reconstruction on her face, having to peel it back and start from the beginning.He discovers that she'd had facio cranial surgery years before from the almost invisible scars in her bones.This is a story for those readers who enjoy medicine and forensics--sometimes rather gruesome but always compelling reading.