Rating: 
Summary: Was suprised by this book
Review: I read this book in two nights-it was fast paced from the beginning, I really like Toby the heroine, you definietly feel her frustrations!!! I couldn't wait to read what happened next, definitely worth reading if you like suspence and medical mysteries.
Rating:
Summary: Contemporary social issues in a suspenseful story
Review: Well-written and intriguing from the first scene. Filled with medical information and contemporary social issues carefully woven into a suspenseful story with believable characters. Preferential treatment for wealthy vs. the exploitation of poor and marginal segments of society, the country's obsession with youth, the pressures of caring for elderly family members, these are just a few of the issues covered. The medical information was so provocative that I did follow-up research into "prions", mad-cow's disease and CJD. Gerritsen is a much better writer than Robin Cook who uses similar material.
Rating:
Summary: Riveting, hard to put down, superb writing
Review: This was one of my favorite books to read. The fast paced action and true-to-life office politics adds a special something to the story. A must read for any true enthusist of police/medical thrillers.
Rating:
Summary: Can't get much better!
Review: This fast pace, page turner is better than Harvest. A can't put down medical thriller, with lots of twist and turns
Rating:
Summary: Better than HARVEST-Gerritsen is the nineties superstar
Review: Once upon a time Dr. Toby Morgan lived a calm, serene life even as she
worked on the over-night shift at the Springer Hospital Emergency Room. Her tranquillity vanishes and she spirals into hell when she angers Dr.
Carl Wallenberg, a medical researcher, who is conducting experiments into
prolonging life at an expensive and exclusive senior citizen facility. Toby had the temerity to override the egotistical doctor's orders. He
demanded that she return the body of one of his patients to the person's
family. Instead she maneuvered the medical examiner into conducting an
autopsy.
The autopsy reveals that the deceased died from an extremely rare
illness that could only be contracted by direct contact of bodily fluids. Toby believes that a previous patient, who mysteriously vanished into the
night, also carried the same illness. She begins to investigate, hoping to
abort an epidemic before it occurs. Instead, Toby discovers that illegal
use of fetal tissue gleaned from embryonic monsters are being used to treat
wealthy patrons. She also learns that her knowledge of the practice makes
her expendable by people who do not want their profitable business ended.
HARVEST was one of the top ten books of 1996, but LIFE SUPPORT is an
even better novel. Tess Gerritsen has created a medical thriller that
leaves readers with the creepy crawly feeling up and down their spines due
to its chilling realism. The implications are terrifying, leaving readers
to ponder what next after completing this pulse pounding, natural mescaline
like ride of a best selling novel.
Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Gerritsen is fast becoming my new favorite pop novelist
Review: I believe I'm actually going backwards as far as the chronology of her titles are concerned. The first book of hers that I read was "GRAVITY", which I thought was perfect. "LIFE SUPPORT" didn't disappoint either. What makes Gerritsen's medical thrillers work is her utter believability. Although a lot of the medical jargon went right over my head (I'm sure I'm not the only one) it certainly comes across that she knows what she's talking about. So far, both books that I've read have centered around an intelligent heroine, who beat the odds of having their reputations tarnished, and yet end up victorious. I would, however, have preferred to know a little bit more about the fate of the heroine's love interest in the book, maybe by Gerritsen explaining a bit more in detail as to the curability of the illness and so on. Overall, I preferred GRAVITY to LIFE SUPPORT because the heroine in the former was not only a doctor, but a flight surgeon on a NASA shuttle. Makes for a great plot! If you haven't tried that one yet, you certainly should. I'm looking forward to checking out her latest novel THE SURGEON... just waiting to find a copy at a nice price. :)
Rating:
Summary: Held my attention from beginning to end
Review: I am reviewing this book in its ABRIDGED format of only two tapes. This abridged recording begins when an underage prostitute is delivered to her client. She's immediately put off by the sleazy location but plays along entering a white walled room filled only with a bright light and what appears to be a doctor's examination table. She hops up on the table as instructed but is soon sucking in noxious fumes and knocked unconscious . . . Next we meet Dr. Toby Harper who works the graveyard shift in the emergency room. One night an old man appears in the ER with no apparent illness besides a penchant for stripping off his clothes in public and a bit of disorientation. As Toby goes about examining him his leg starts to twitch. She's called out on another call and when she returns he has disappeared and Toby is held responsible. Soon another old man arrives (who was, coincidentally, living in the same fancy retirement community as the first mystery man) with similar symptoms but this man dies. Toby is suspicious, orders an autopsy and does some snooping around on her own when she is met with unreasonable resistance to her questions. It seems that some experimentation with prolonging life has been going on at the retirement home with frightening side effects. When Toby eventually discovers a bit of what has been going on her own life becomes endangered. This was an interesting medical thriller with an engaging protagonist but once Tape 2 begins the abridgement becomes very apparent. Events begin to happen fast and furiously and characterization is minimal. For the most part, the cuts necessary for this abridgement are smooth but I did find myself left a bit confused on more than one occasion and would've loved to have gotten to know all of the players a bit better. If I stumble across an uncut version of "Life Support" I'll definitely check it out to read all that I missed.
Rating: 
Summary: As a book on tape, this is an OK medical-thriller but...
Review: ...perhaps it is the genre, but every medical thriller I read (or, in this case, hear) seems like a re-hash of "Coma." Evil medical doctors who are conducting illegal/immoral experiments/surgeries are thwarted by good guys who stumble upon the plot and eventually thwart it.
In this case, our hero (Dr. Toby Harber) stumbles upon two elderly men from the same gated retirement community who are exhibiting sudden onset dementia and who have similar twitching in the exremeties. Is there a connection? Will she solve the mystery?
This abridged book on tape was ocassionally a little too abridged, but it was not too hard to follow. The reader was Megan Gallagher (the wife on the dark thriller TV show "Millenium"). Gallagher's voice is excellent for exuding (practically oozing) sympathy. This is wonderfully appropriate for some of the scenes, especially when there are deaths in the hospital. At other times, she turns on this "sympathy voice" on odd ocassions. At one point, she sounded like she was going to cry as the character baked a casserole!
So, in short - not an original over-arching plot, but there were several good thriller scenes and the sub-plot concerning Dr. Harper's mom was a nice touch to the story. Gallagher's excessive sentimentalizing as she read was both a plus and a minus so we'll call that a draw.
Rating:
Summary: Very Interesting
Review: Ever wanted to learn about Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease and teratomas? Dr Toby Harper investigates when a confused man disappears, and then there's the matter of a woman giving birth to something hideously deformed. (B+)
Rating:
Summary: Too Realistic!! wonderful story and characters
Review: As a nurse, I can tell you that modern day medicine is not too far behind this. With the Money Hungry facilities and practicioners, this is too believeable. I read it today, and couldn't put it down. It's everybit as good as Robin Cook.
| 
