The Patient

Rating:
Summary: A Medical Thriller...
Review: Michael Palmer is an M.D. that also happens to be a very good writter of suspense stories. And this is one of them. With the daily advances in medical research, the procedures in this book are not far off.

But even more important. This book is a fun and fast read. you will be turning the pages to see what happens next. If you like suspense, read it.

This medical thriller has a good plot that will keep you guessing. You will following the quest of an CIA agent who is after a villanius killer with single minded determination of a pit bull. And at the same time this killer is trying to find the best neurosurgen to remove a head turmor he knows has developed. The story really becomes engrossing as the killer choses his Doctor....

Rating:
Summary: An Outstanding Medical Thriller
Review: This electrifying medical thriller is brilliantly written and doesn't let up until the final page. Michael Palmer combines cutting-edge medical technology with international intrigue and throws in a side order of blind ambition to create a fascinating and suspense filled tale.

This is probably the best medical thriller I've ever read. The technology was plausible and the scientific explanations seemed well informed. The characters are interesting and well developed. Dr. Carl Gilbride's insatiable egomania as head of the Eastern Mass Medical Center puts patients at risk by pushing the use of the ARTIE technology before it is ready. His imprudence and haughtiness makes it that much easier to love Dr. Jesse Copeland, his dedicated protégée who is far more accomplished as a brain surgeon than her boss is. International terrorist Claude Malloche and his wife are ruthless and wicked beyond description; heightening the uncertainty as to the mayhem they will wreak to further their desperate ends.

The plot twists, turns and races at breakneck speed against an incessantly ticking clock providing a white-knuckle ride and unbearable suspense. I rate this book a 10/10. It has been a long time since I have been so engrossed in a story. Don't plan to get much sleep until you finish it.

Rating:
Summary: The Dr. is in!
Review: This is the second book of Michael Palmer's that I have read and really loved it. The story centers around Dr. Jessie Copeland, a neurosurgeon who has helped develop a robot that can assist in brain surgeries. She is sought out by a villanous killer, Claude Malloche, who discovers he has a brain tumor and needs the best surgeon possible to operate on him. Malloche has been pursued for 5 years by a CIA agent named Alex, who would like nothing more than to see him dead. Posing as a security guard at the Boston hospital, Alex is on to Malloche's plan for surgery. The story becomes very exciting as the hospital is sealed off by Malloche's followers who have the go ahead to release a deadly gas if his surgery is not succesful. With all of this on Jessie's mind she has to perform delicate brain surgery using the robot ARTIE, which isn't quite ready to be used on living patients. Of course there is some romance tied in as Jessie is attracted to Alex, and added to the suspense it makes for a real good read. I will be looking for the other books by Michael Palmer soon.

Rating:
Summary: Another fine, suspenseful Palmer / innovative surgical plot
Review: We have enjoyed all of Palmer's previous medical thrillers, and quickly got hooked on this recent one featuring micro-robotic neurosurgery as a not too impossible current/future development in medicine. After a noted nuerosurgeon gets bumped off in the prologue, we are introduced to Boston doctors Jessie Copeland and her boss, Carl Gilbride, who are perfecting a tiny robot that has been engineered to perform brain surgery on malignant tumors. When a mysterious foreign criminal, Claude Malloche, needs such surgery, he soon takes hostage the entire hospital, and to an extent, the city of Boston, so that the surgeons will be forced to use this experimental technique to save his life. Can these docs and Alex Bishop, an FBI type whose brother was killed by Malloche, save the day, the hospital, and the city?

To us, Palmer can take a plausible premise and extend it into a suspenseful story with aplomb. His characters are well drawn and his plots are just reasonable enough to avoid the far-fetched bin. Even if the ending is a bit predictable, it's fun getting there. We highly recommend this author and this entertaining story.

Rating:
Summary: A Thrilling Thriller
Review: While a bit far-fetched, this medical thriller was enough to put this reader on the edge of her seat many times. The plot took many twists and turns, from wondering who REALLY was the bad guy to wondering how the good guys were ever going to solve the mystery and get out alive. The ending was a bit predictable-which makes me think that I have read too many books like this.

Alex Bishop, a CIA agent operating on his own, wants to settle a personal score with Claude Malloche, an international terrorist/murderer who is a master of disguise but who also has an inoperable brain tumor. Dr.Jessie Copeland is in the final stages of perfecting the use of a miniscule robot that will change brain surgery forever and allow formerly inoperable tumors to be excised.

To ensure Jessie's co-operation and to force her to use the untested robot to remove his tumor, Malloche literally holds all of Boston hostage, threatening patients in the hospital and the entire city with the release of a deadly toxin into the air.

Of course, in light of what happened here on September 11th, the threats in this book, seemed mild in comparison. Nevertheless, physician-writer Palmer manages to imbue his stories with enough legitimate medical lore to make them fairly believable.