Deadly Care

Rating:
Summary: #3 in a too-long series
Review: *spoilers*
This 1996 third book in the Joanna Blalock/ Jake Sinclair series was in the running for Most Outlandish Plot of the Year, and may have won. Try this: large HMO is keeping an eye on profits, so it plants devices in its patients which can release fatal poison by remote control, in case their care gets too expensive. The bodies pile up -- average of one every 35 pages -- as the HMO's military/ CIA-trained assassin now targets Joanna. Will this assassin, who has no trouble at all killing others, manage to do Joanna in?
We are CONSTANTLY reminded of how beautiful Joanna is, and most characters are described by how well they're aging. As a preview of Jake's police brutality seen in future books, Jake pulls his handgun on two of Joanna's neighbors who are making too much noise late at night.
It's more of an "action" book than one where the characters, especially the "good guys," face any moral choices or tests of character. The good guys do their jobs, squabble with coworkers, and -- if they're male -- try to date Joanna.
For an author who lives in California, Goldberg is unfamiliar with California law: death by gas chamber was outlawed in 1994, and the handgun wait period is 10 days, not 14.

Rating:
Summary: Could Have Been A LOT Better
Review: After reading the first two Joanna Blalock books, I couldn't wait to get my hands on the third. What a disappointment. It was as if this book was written by someone else. Usually Leonard Goldberg's books are so fast paced that you can barely put them down. I read this one quickly just so I could move onto the 4th. I don't think this book could even be called a medical thriller. It was almost a 'cop/assasin' type book. The beginning was great but then it was all downhill after that. Hopefully the next one will be a lot better.

Rating:
Summary: Not too original, but engrossing nonetheless.
Review: In "Deadly Care," Leonard Goldberg dusts off a number of cliches: 1) the spunky female forensic pathologist who endangers her life to get at the truth 2) the tough but sensitive cop who has had an on-again off-again affair with the aforementioned pathologist 3) the big bad HMO that will do anything for profit. Been there, done that. Yet, in spite of this, Goldberg manages to keep the reader's interest throughout. How? He writes crisp, no-nonsense dialogue. The action is fast-paced and the bodies pile up. Goldberg knows how to write a gripping thriller and the medical details add a needed touch of realism. "Deadly Care" is an entertaining medical whodunit.

Rating:
Summary: Kept me reading to find the solution
Review: This is the first book written by Dr. Goldberg I have read. I really cannot wait to get the other books written by Dr. Goldberg. I could not put the book down and found my self reading it all the time. There really was not a point in the book that I could not wait for what would happen next. I can hardly wait to read other books by Dr Goldberg.