Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

Michael Palmer was an MD and the author of books of fiction both on medically related themes as well as other novels. He passed away suddenly in 2013 leaving a void in the literary world that will be difficult to fill. He did, as many authors do, have ideas as outlines of books in the planning stage. His son, Daniel Palmer, who is not an MD but has a background in the high tech area, has written successful novels involved with domestic suspense. Daniel has taken background and outline from an idea being developed by his father and completed a novel based on a conspiracy in the medical field.

Dr. Carrie Bryant, a young neurosurgeon, is a highly regarded doctor in residence at White Memorial hospital. Due to scheduling difficulties, she is given a chance to do her first unsupervised brain surgery. She performs the difficult procedure but unforeseen complications arise. While exhausted, Carrie has to rush back to her patient and makes a tragic mistake resulting in permanent brain damage.

During the inquest, Carrie feels impelled to resign her position at White Memorial. She moves back into her parents’ house in order to get herself together to continue with her medical career. Her brother Adam, a returning veteran suffering from PTSD after being in combat, also lives there and his condition leads Carrie into exploring another, different job.

When Carrie learns about a new technique involving Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) being tested as a treatment for the emotional and memory trauma occurring in PTSD by the VA, she decides to enter that program as a surgeon and as a way back into medicine. Her first operation is successful, but amazingly the patient mysteriously vanishes. Almost immediately after her second operation, also successful, has the same result – the patient vanishes.

David Hoffman, an investigative reporter with a local newspaper, is writing a story about the incidence of PTSD in returning veterans and in his work has interviewed Carrie. She feels free to ask him to start investigating the disappearances, which he does. The investigation uncovers a conspiracy going to the very top of the Veterans Administration and exposes both Carrie and David to great danger.

Daniel Palmer incorporates his father’s notes and explanations into the novel making it both a fascinating medical plot as well as an adventure into a major conspiracy. Very readable with explanations about PTSD and its effects on many combat veterans with a need to develop new procedures to help them return to civilian life.

5/15 Paul Lane

TRAUMA by Michael Palmer & Daniel Palmer. Simon & Schuster (May 19, 2015). ISBN: 978-1476764856. 320p.

Dr. Jeremy Logan specializing in investigations of strange and inexplicable happenings and having the title of the Enigmalogist makes a second appearance in a novel by Lincoln Child. Dr. Logan is called upon by the management of a large “Think Tank” named Lux and located in Newport, Rhode Island, to look at a very strange occurrence. One of the more eminent doctors working for Lux suddenly began behaving erratically attacking a colleague and then killing himself in a very shocking manner.

In the course of his investigation Dr. Logan discovers a hidden and actually lost room untouched for decades hidden in a wing of the institution which is not widely used. The room is filled with strange equipment that points to a top secret project known as Project S. What Project S was and if it led to the strange actions and subsequent suicide of the doctor forms the gist of the novel. What the project was and what it involved leads Dr Logan into the path of an unforeseen and unexpected danger.

The concept and the happenings are well conceived. A flaw encountered but not greatly detracting from an engrossing read are the lengths of descriptions used in the course of the writing. Child’s aim in these lengthy discourses must surely have been to set the scene in both the seashore of Newport Rhode Island and the size and age of the Think Tanks physical plant.

5/15 Paul Lane

THE FORGOTTEN ROOM by Lincoln Child. Doubleday (May 12, 2015). ISBN: 978-0385531405. 304p.

Jack the Ripper, the very name brings an image of the most horrific serial killer that ever existed. Jack not only murdered but dissected his victims. He killed 5 prostitutes in the Whitechapel section of London in the year 1888 and then disappeared from view. Never caught, his crimes terrorized London and took a place in history from that year to today. Conjecture about who, or what he (or possibly she) is still rampant even now.

Stephen Hunter has written many successful novels involving guns and snipers. His knowledge of ballistics is encyclopedic. The present novel deviates from guns to the knife used by the Ripper and shows the same research that his other books embody. His descriptions of London of 1888, and the territory inhabited by Jack bring up a picture of another time and place. The misery of the poor living in the Whitechapel section is captured and made into the background of the action for the reader.

The book provides the facts, the conditions and the horror of the murders. Hunter names the women killed and provides as much as possible about them at this point in time. His descriptions of each murder are lurid, probably taken from actual newspaper accounts. The narrative uses a young Irish Journalist who follows the Ripper’s path in order to make a name for himself. He brings out facts that lead to a possible solution to who the murderer is and with literary license provides an ending to Jack’s career.

Hunter uses supposed diaries written by the journalist, and Jack himself to tell the story. He notes suspicions of the era  bringing up theories prevalent and popular during the period of the Ripper’s career.  There are tie-ins with the methods used by Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes to solve cases via astute observation and logic, as well as reference to the novel “Pygmalion” by George Bernard Shaw.

The descriptions of the murders will be upsetting but are key to postulating the Ripper’s possible motivation in carrying out the crimes. Another fascinating book by Stephen Hunter.

5/15 Paul Lane

I, Ripper by Stephen Hunter. Simon & Schuster (May 19, 2015). ISBN: 978-1476764856. 320p.

Click to purchase

Orient, New York has long prided itself on its closed community of year-round citizens. Anyone else is viewed as an outsider no matter what their circumstances may be. The only exception is architect Paul Benchley, who was born and raised on the island, and so forgiven for leaving them behind to live most of the year in the big city.

But now Paul is back and he’s bringing a guest with him. A guest his neighbors aren’t anxious to welcome to Orient. The guest is Mills Chevern, an orphan and runaway Paul takes pity on and vows to help by removing him from the temptations and dangers of New York City. But Paul and Mills’s arrival coincide with the death of one of the village’s own. More crime and dead bodies follow and suspicion immediately turns to newcomer Mills, leaving the teen no choice but to prove his own innocence.

Bollen is incredibly long winded, something I thought was going to be a detriment to the book early on. Before long, however, I’d settled into the narrative and really started to enjoy myself.

The insular community of Orient is fabulously drawn with resident busybodies, gossip mongers, and the few “outsiders” like Paul, Mills, and Beth, an artist recently returned to Orient herself. As the plot unfolds, the politics of the town begin to have great influence on the various happenings and goings on, including multiple murders. Bollen does a fair job of keeping the identity of the true killer and their motive under wraps until the very end, though.

Orient is a doorstopper of a read, to be sure, but once the first hundred pages or so are behind and all of the characters are introduced it moves along at a great pace.

5/15 Becky LeJeune

ORIENT by Christopher Bollen.  Harper (May 5, 2015).  ISBN 978-0062329950.  624p.