The Inquisitor : A Medical Thriller

Rating:
Summary: Death takes no holiday.
Review: Dr. Earl Garnet is back in "The Inquisitor," Peter Clement's new medical thriller. Earl has had his problems with the medical establishment in the past, but he is now in a position to call some of the shots himself. Garnet is not only head of the emergency room at Buffalo's St. Paul's Hospital, but he is also vice president of the medical department, second only to the CEO of the hospital in power. He is a dedicated and compassionate doctor who is married to his beautiful colleague, Janet, an OB-GYN awaiting the birth of their second child.

Garnet's problems have not evaporated since Clement's last book. St. Paul's is close to the Canadian border, and the hospital has SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) cases from tourists traveling back and forth between the United States and Canada. Everyone, including patients, must wear masks in order to prevent the spread of infection. The SARS scare has made everyone edgy and frightened, especially since some of St. Paul's medical personnel have died from the dreaded disease.

"The Inquisitor" of the title is a psychotic individual who is obsessed with finding out from dying people what they see when they "pass over" to the other side. This person sneaks into the hospital rooms of extremely sick patients and brings them close to death in order to record their final words. Unfortunately, he or she can't always bring them back, and some of them die before their time. The "psycho" segments, told in the first person, in which this crazed person talks about his or her actions and motivations, are heavy-handed and way over the top. These portions of the book do not mesh well with the lively dialogue and light-hearted banter that make the rest of the novel so readable.

Along with the heroic Garnet, "The Inquisitor" features a wide and varied cast of characters. Jane Simmons, known as J. S., is a terrific emergency room nurse who is content on the job but unhappy with her personal life. Although Dr. Stewart Deloram is a miracle worker in the ICU, his colleagues dislike him for taking offense at the slightest insult. Father Jimmy Fitzpatrick is a warm and amiable priest who goads Earl into assisting terminal patients who get insufficient medication to alleviate their pain. Earl orders extra meds for a cancer patient, and she subsequently dies from a morphine overdose. Did Earl's interference lead to this woman's death?

Clement captures the ambience of a hospital very well. He explains medical terminology clearly and keeps the book moving at a fast pace. The author includes quite a few red herrings to throw the reader off the scent. The ending, however, is awkward, with too many crises occurring one after another, and too many illogical twists and turns that lead to an overly pat conclusion. In spite of these flaws, "The Inquisitor" is a workmanlike novel whose strengths are its lively characters and its realistic portrayal of how doctors function in a hospital setting.



Rating:
Summary: A heart-racing thriller that is Clement's best work to date
Review: Peter Clement has been writing medical thrillers for a number of years, utilizing his experience as a hospital emergency room physician to bring an edge-of-the-seat feeling to the events that he describes so succinctly and realistically. Clement does not pull any punches in his descriptions of his medical procedures, and his novels require our undivided attention. Always a good writer, he has polished his rough edges to the point where he is becoming an A-list thriller writer. His latest, THE INQUISITOR, featuring Dr. Earl Garnet, firmly ensconces his position there.

THE INQUISITOR opens with a terminally ill cancer patient being relentlessly questioned by a voice, whispering in the dark, asking her to describe what she sees during the final moments of her life. As the story unfolds Garnet begins to notice a pattern --- a cluster, if you will --- of deaths at St. Paul's Hospital, which leads him to suspect that someone on staff may be prematurely terminating the lives of patients. The hospital and its staff, already stressed by the SARS epidemic, is at a breaking point, and virtually everyone --- even trusted members of Garnet's own emergency room staff --- is a suspect. What Garnet does not suspect is that his investigation, initiated with the intention of protecting the innocent, is directly putting members of his staff at risk --- and his wife, pregnant with their second child, is ultimately in the greatest danger of all.

THE INQUISITOR is, quite frankly, impossible to put down. It is by far Clement's best work, a heart-racing thriller that leaves the reader guessing the identity, and motive, of a diabolical murderer until almost the very end.

For those readers heretofore unfamiliar with Clement, and Garnet, THE INQUISITOR will make true believers of them. Recommended.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub