Fatal

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating medical thriller
Review: A pregnant woman starts to haemorrhage, a violinist awfully disfigured by an unknown disease is drawn into paranoia, a miner goes berserk causing the death of two co-workers. What is it that links these deaths? Could it be the way the Belinda Coal and Coke Company disposes of its waste near the town of Belinda? But Dr Matt Rutledge needs proof and soon his research campaign becomes very bitterly personal. Meanwhile, two women unknown to each other are drawn inexorably to Belinda and into Matt's life - and into deadly danger. Massachusetts coroner Nikki Solari comes to attend the funeral of her roommate, killed violently on a Boston street. Ellen Kroft, a retired schoolteacher from Maryland, seeks the remorseless killer who has threatened to destroy her and her family. Three strangers - Rutledge, Solari and Kroft - each hold one piece of the puzzle they must solve. If they don't do this in due time, their own life may be put at risk.
As usual, Michael Palmer wrote a breathtaking medical thriller and a fully enjoyable page turner.
Philippe Horak / [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: 4 1/2 stars
Review: I always enjoy reading a Michael Palmer novel because it always seems to combine controversial medical topics, along with thrills that will please all suspense fans.

Matt Rutledge is a small town doctor in Belinda, WV. He believes the local mining company is causing illness and death (such as his wife's and father's), and is looking real hard for the reason to get the mine shut down. Not a real popular idea amongst the folks in town.
Ellen Kroft is a retired school teacher who believes that a new vaccine that's being introduced nationwide (endorsed by the First Lady) is deadly.
Nikki Solari, a coroner from Massachusetts, is in the town of Belinda to attend her best friend's funeral, when an attempt is made on her life. It seems she might have received some suspicious information about her best friend's death, and somebody wants that information real bad.

As these individuals come together in the story, you get a very exciting and suspenseful novel that should put Palmer on the top of his genre (I think he's already on the top). Lassa fever, Prion diseases and possible problems with vaccinations are just a few of the interesting topics covered. You'll enjoy many of the characters as well. I got a kick out of the dialogue with the mountain men.

Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A story of terrifying consequences.
Review: Matt Rutledge, an internist and emergency specialist at a small West Virginia hospital, notices a recurrence of people being admitted with horrifying symptoms--an Elephant-Man -like condition which produces large lumps all over the head and body, accompanied by a gradual descent into paranoia. As Matts wife had died of a rare form of cancer,he becomes convinced that the local mining company, Belinda Coke and Coal, is somehow connected throuh its output of toxic waste from the mine.
A Boston pathologist, Dr.Nikki Solari, attends the funeral of her musician friend Kathy who was born in Belinda, and showed all the symptons of chemical poisoning. She is kidnapped after the funeral by the Sheriff of Belinda,and is rescued by Matt Rutledge. Many other very interesting characters are introduced in this gripping tale of greed, murder and medical mystery and will revive the for and against arguments about vaccination.A terrifically fast paced book and a wonderful read.

Rating:
Summary: A fun fast read
Review: Michael Palmer is a best-selling writer of medical thrillers. In this, his latest work, Dr. Michael Rutledge of Belinda, West Virginia has returned home following the death of his wife and father. He is convinced the toxic waste of the local mining company is responsible and wants to prove it. Going against the local powers can prove to be quite dangerous. Meanwhile, pathologist, Nicki Solari, is looking into the death of a friend of hers who died of an unusual illness. She travels to Belinda, her friend's hometown to seek answers. Nicki eventually meets Michael and they realize they might have a common goal.
In another plot line, Ellen Kroft questions the safety of a new super vaccine. Her fear is that it has not been adequately tested and the risk to life is very real. Ellen sits on a committee evaluating the vaccine. After an unwelcome visitor threatens her child, Ellen tries to get to the bottom of the threat. The path, once again, leads to Belinda, West Virginia. Eventually, Michael, Nicki and Ellen join forces to fight a common, yet, dangerous, enemy.
FATAL is a fun, fast reading novel which questions the underlying motivation of getting vaccines on the market. What is especially impressive about this work is that ,in spite of having a strong agenda, the author manages to never wane from telling an exciting tale. Of course, there are some stereotypic characters present given that it takes place in the backwoods of West Virginia, however, overall they are a believable bunch. Michael Palmer fully understands what makes a thriller successful as is evidenced here.

Rating:
Summary: "Honey. I ain't feelin' good. Think I'll take some Omnivax."
Review: The medical thriller probably begins as far back as Upton Sinclair taking on the greedy, amoral manufacturers, but it certainly was refined by Crichton and then the offshoot, one could argue, might be Kellerman, Robin Cook and even Jeffrey Deaver to some extent. But clearly, no one does it better than Michael Palmer.

Matt Rutledge returns to West Virginia to practice medicine, recollecting the love of his coal miner father, killed in a mine collapse, terribly missing his lovely wife who died suddenly by an anomalous carcinogen, and befriended by the evil (no, nice twist, not really) Slocum Brothers.

Far north, Nikki Solari, concert-style classical violinist turned blue grass musician and full time pathologist buries her closest friend who became psychotic and stepped in front of a fast moving Peterbilt.

Dr. Matt ER's two miners, one of whom went beserk several hundred yards beneath a mountain, and Ellen Kroft, a consumer advocate on a Federal Committee to investigate a cure-all vaccine for children, is gravely disturbed by the White House's push to release the "fountain of youth-kill all the bad bugs vaccine," Omnivax, and is being presured by the self-interested members of the committee.

Naturally all forces, good, evil, confused, heartbroken, come together in Belinda, West Virginia ('Country Roads, Take me Home.')

A little wild from time to time and the reader needs occasional doses of the suspension of disbelief pill, nevertheless engaging, articulate, well written and relentless in its excitement.

Worth the trip. A pill not hard to swallow. 5 stars. Larry Scantlebury