The Society

Rating:
Summary: The evils of Corporatized Medicine
Review: Dr. Will Grant is a surgeon at the Fredrickston Surgical Associates center in a sleepy bedroom community of Boston, who balances his life with both the Open Hearth Kitchen and meetings of the Hippocrates Society. He is just a guy who wants to do right by his children who live with his ex-wife and give something back to the community. He is a low-key and easy going Doctor who is finding more and more frustration in catering to the HMO's demands for red-tape procedure.

First he finds himself on a debate floor of the Hippocrates Society with HMO Corporate giant Boyd Halliday, earning attention he preferred to shy away from, then next thing he knows he is drugged in his own hospital just before performing a surgery, victim of a setup. He finds himself relieved of his position, accused of drug abuse, and shunned by the Society that once trusted him.

Police Sergeant Patricia Moriarity finds herself assigned to a prominent case, the recent serial murders of HMO executives, with her chauvinistic partner Wayne Brasco. Her research leads her to the Hippocrates Society debate where she first meets Dr. Grant, feeling an immediate but unwelcome attraction to him.

After Will is suspended from FSA, he and Patty team up in a joint effort to find out who set Will up, and who is responsible for the horrible murders, believing the two incidents to be related. Watched by the police and tracked by a killer, Will and Patty embark on a frightening investigation that could lead them both to their deaths.

I am a big fan of Michael Palmer, and to explain, I gave this book four stars instead of five because it doesn't live up to Palmer's own standards of writing. In The Society, I found his protagonist to be uncharacteristically shallow, lacking the vibrancy that Palmer usually injects into his stories. Both Will and Patty just seemed to be a bit flat, one-dimensional, and it was hard to empathize with them at times.

The plot does twist and turn, and there are surprises that will pop up along the way, but the most interesting point of The Society is that the HMO horror stories Palmer highlights in this book are real. In his introduction, he talks of using his website to collect real HMO disaster stories, and gives credit to those who's tales he borrowed.

All in all, The Society is a very good medical thriller, and I will still buy Palmer in hardback addition without any regret. Enjoy!


Rating:
Summary: Palmer's best yet
Review: Having read all of Michael Palmer's previous novels, I have to say that this is his best yet. The touchy subject of HMOs is covered by citing examples of the ridiculous excuses HMOs give for not covering certain claims. The hero doctor & heroine cop
are put in exciting & dangerous situations that are made truly believable by Palmer's excellent writing skills. I was upset when the story came to an end, because I wanted to keep reading this exciting story. Can't wait for his next novel.

Rating:
Summary: TOP NOTCH READING OF A MEDICAL THRILLER
Review: HMOs take up a lot of news space these days - sometimes praised, sometimes vilified. Thus, author Palmer's topic is especially timely. A physician himself he's familiar with the territory he covers. This is his 11th medical thriller and his prescriptions, as always, are pulse pounding.

Fortunately for listeners, the talented J. Charles gives voice to this story of graft, greed, and murder in the managed care business. Charles is amazing. He can both seduce and scare with the sound of his voice.

Murder begins our story - the deaths of several reprehensible HMO big guns in Massachusetts. Dr. Will Grant, is an honest, idealistic young physician who cares for patients in the Boston area. He wants to return the medical field to the respect it once deserved. If he could, he'd do battle with the anything-for-a-buck insurance companies who are bleeding those in need. Instead, he finds that he must fight a sick serial killer who intends to take care of HMOs his way.

Will joins forces with young detective Patty Moriarity in finding the psychotic slayer before they become his next victims.

- Gail Cooke

Rating:
Summary: This author keeps improving his writings with every new book
Review: I am always excited to read the newest Michael Palmer novel. This may mean having to wait for 1-2 years, but as this book offers proof, his talent is consideringly improving. I loved this book. Mainly because the topic is a current phenomena in the Medical Field. Some authors get into a rut with the way they tell a story. Palmer is always coming up with a fresh, new look at how the medical community becomes over shadowed by society in and of itself. I love it when I haven't a clue of the outcome of the storyline, and this book doesn't disappoint! Read it you'll see!

Rating:
Summary: I admit I'm not impartial....
Review: I met Michael Palmer at a bridge tournament about 12 years ago and my husband and I have been friends with him ever since, so I begin by admitting I'm not impartial. :-) Having said that, I've truly enjoyed all of Michael's novels, as well as the film "Extreme Measures" (starring Hugh Grant and Gene Hackman). The Society did not disappoint; in fact I bought two copies for holiday gifts. The novel's indictment of the HMO structure is right on target.

Rating:
Summary: The struggle of medicine versus the bottom line.
Review: Michael Palmer gets the reader's attention on the first page of the first chapter, when he profiles the murder of Marcia Rising, an HMO executive.
Dr. Will Grant works hard at trying to be a good divorced Dad to his twins. Despite contrary beliefs, Doctors like himself struggle to make ends meet at times. Will continues to volunteer at a shelter, Open Hearth that he helped create. Dr. Grant is also an active member of the Hippocrates Society, a group determined to fight how big business has taken over the field of medicine. Dr. Grant is asked to substitute at the last moment for a colleague in a debate against HMO leader, Boyd Halliday. Patricia Moriarity, a detective assigned to the HMO executives serial killer case, suspects Dr. Grant as the possible killer after doing some research into his past. At the same time, complicating things, Patty feels a romantic connection with him. Grace Davis appears with her husband at his clinic, someone Dr. Grant helped recover from alcoholism ten years ago. Grace has breast cancer and decides at the last moment she wants him to do his surgery. Paperwork and politics get in the way. Dr. Grant manages to aggravate a few people a long the way trying to help Grace. His life is turned upside down when he unexpectedly collapses in the middle of a complicated surgery. It determined that Will was high on the drug fentanyl and is suspended from the hospital. Dr. Grant is determined to find out who set him up. Detective Moriarity is kicked off the case as well. Nonetheless she and Dr. Grant continue to put together the pieces of this case, with all the odds stacked against them. The ending stretches a little thin but you feel relieved as Will and Patty do that they survive.


Rating:
Summary: Entertaining Medical Thriller
Review: Once again, a very entertaining medical thriller from Mr Palmer. The story was very interesting and moved at a fast action filled pace. Very enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: Michael Palmer does it again!!
Review: Once again, Michael Palmer gives us another wonderful medical thriller. The story was interesting, fast paced and plays on everyone's feelings about HMOs in America. The addition of a tough yet compassionate female detective, supportive children and the staff at the shelter he helped create, gave the story an all round symmetry and tied the entire cast together in a very believable fashion. The addition of various people, background stories, and interactions amongst the main characters helped make this one of the best novels I've read in quite some time. The Society kept me turning the pages to the very end, although I was distressed by some of the loose ends, I was shocked by the ending. It's a must read for everyone who likes a good mystery.

Rating:
Summary: It ends better than it starts out...
Review: Over the last couple of days, I've been reading Michael Palmer's latest novel, Society. It definitely ends better than it starts out...

Dr. Will Grant is a physician crusading against the evils of managed care and the big bad insurance companies. All is going well until executives of managed care companies start getting murdered. It looks like one or more people have an axe to grind with managed care, and the police think that Grant is involved, all except a woman detective who believes him but has been forced off the case. During a surgery, Grant is drugged, passes out during the operation, is accused of drug abuse, and is kicked off the staff of the hospital. With his life in ruins, he decides to hire a lawyer and fight back. This leads to a showdown at the end with the killers who set him up. I'll keep it really high level so as not to give away the twists at the end.

Within the first five pages, Palmer establishes that HMO companies are evil and are the bad guys. No subtlety whatsoever. I was pretty well prepared to give it a 3 out of 5 at that point. Even though that premise continues throughout the book, the plot does get more intense and I started to identify with what the characters were going through. There are some nasty plot twists at the end, and the book became a "can't put down" for the last few chapters. Plot line would have given this book a full 5 stars. I'll average the ranking out and give it a 4. A good story, but the "evil HMO" could have been delivered better than it was...

Rating:
Summary: Action packed thrills; good doctor and lady cop fight HMO's!
Review: We have enjoyed most of Michael Palmer's medical thrillers, finding them to be entertaining stories with realistic premises about dangers to us all that could happen in the field of doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutics. His latest novel, "The Society", has it all: villainous rich men guiding HMO's to make money against all standards of decency toward their patients; an innocent doctor, who protests against HMO's by night, gets drugged before doing surgery by day (?); and a young female homicide investigator anxious to stand on her own two feet (not on her cop father's laurels) in an immensely sexist police department. Toss in some blood-chilling action, including torture and near death to both our heroes, and this busy storyline will keep you turning pages quickly to see who the bad guys really are and whether our leading man and lady will not only survive, but get to consummate a growing love interest.

As with Dr, Robin Cook's tales, we feel Palmer is on more solid ground when describing the problems the docs face and telling us what really happens in the field than he is when moving people about and using guns and generally outwitting or outrunning guys who kill for fun and profit. While we have to suspend reality a little to believe the otherwise terrifying circumstances near the book's end, the stories about HMO abuse are only too real, as Palmer recruited all of those from true-life examples of readers of his web site. A somewhat overly righteous call for a socialized medicine scheme similar to Canada's was hardly fleshed out enough to warrant the mention that it got -- we hear too many stories of Canadians crossing the line to get "real" care to just swallow that one wholeheartedly. Nonetheless, Palmer has crafted yet another in his provocative line of thrillers -- one sure to wow both his fan club and the average reader alike. Enjoy!