The Second Opinion [Mass Market Paperback]

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

The Second Opinion [Mass Market Paperback]

Product Details

Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks; First Edition edition (December 29, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312937768
ISBN-13: 978-0312937768
Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 4.1 x 1.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

By : Michael Palmer
Price : $9.99

Customer Reviews

Palmer has created some quirky, wonderfully likable characters who are sure you draw you into the story. Most of all, however, this is a mystery on overdrive. Fast, furious, and fun.
Dr Thea leaves the hospital in the Congo where she has been working upon hearing that her famous father has been nearly killed in a hit and run car accident.
Her father lies in a deep coma, seemingly beyond help. Thea's older bother and sister insist he should be allowed to die. The coma appears irreversible.
To complicate matters Thea's brother Dimitri has recreated the accident, by using a computer simulation, that landed her father in a coma. The simulation shows that the car that hit her father aimed at him deliberately. Who wanted to kill him?
Moreover, as she watches her father, Thea thinks she can see him respond to her questions. It's only a faint flutter of his eyelid. But when she calls in a nurse her father shows no movement. Why would he only want to contact her? Or could it be that she only wants him to respond?
Thea has Asperger's syndrome. It has made her a superb doctor, with a near encyclopedic memory of medical papers she has read, but it has left her with a dismaying inability to judge the emotions of other people. Who can she trust as she realizes there has been a deadly conspiracy, one involving many wealthy people?
Palmer does a fantastic job of juggling romance and mystery, and there are some twists and turns--and some thrilling scenes--that are bound to surprise the most experienced thriller reader. This is one you will really enjoy.

Michael Palmer has always been a good writer and I have enjoyed each one of his efforts but in the time since First Patient, he has matured and aged as a fine wine. Perhaps it is his interest in Asbergers Syndrome or another change in his life but I get a feel from his work that I never got before.
The protagonist is a female and I often find that writers have a difficult time creating good opposite sex character development but his Thea is very layered and real. Readers will not only feel the complexity of her disability but know her uncertainties as a woman.
It is often easy to identify the antagonist early in a writing but Second Opinion leaves the reader guessing not only about who that is but who might be the ultimate target. I was disappointed when my eyes cried out for sleep and I still had half the novel to read.
Bringing a syndrome to light like Asbergers is a tremendous service and will offer the readers an opportunity to understand these unique individuals in a compassionate and respective view. The space of medical thrillers, when used for greater public understanding, is a wonderfully responsible action for the writer.
Congratulations on a really superior piece of work!