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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.
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Summary: ANOTHER THRILLER FROM MICHAEL PALMER
Review: Michael Palmer is a talented writer who writes, edge of your seat, medical thrillers. His writing style is easy to follow and you always find yourself very involved with, and pulling for the lead character or characters. His writing style and subject matter are not unlike the the medical thriller master, Robin Cook. Palmer is pretty much in the same league, maybe just one tier, below Cook but his best books are probably as good as Cooks. Like most practitioners of Medical mysteries, Palmer is a M.D., a emergency room physician to be exact. Location Fatal primarily takes place in a small country coal mining town in West Virginia named Belinda. Main Characters There are three main characters and the story bounces back and forth between the three until they all come together toward the ending. They are: Dr. Matthew Rutledge - GP and emergency room doctor
Ellen Kroft - consumer member of a Presidential task force.
Dr. Nikki Solari - Pathologist for city of Boston Other secondary characters but of primary importance to the story are: The Slocumb brothers - back woods moonshiners and hermits.
Rudy Peterson - a friend of Krofts
Dr. Hal Sawyer - Dr. Rutledges uncle and godfather.
Sheriff Grimes - Belinda's law officer The Plot Some people are getting sick even deformed and dying in Belinda and our protagonist, Dr. Matt Rutledge knows it's the fault of the Belinda Coal and Coke Company, commonly known as B.C.& C. the main employer in Belinda. Meanwhile you don't see the connection but in Boston, Nikki Solari's roommate has been acting paranoid and she finally disappears, while in Washington Ellen Kroft is fighting a losing battle on the Omnivax multiple disease / single inoculation program the the first lady is pushing. The Story Rutlege's father had died in a mining accident when he was young and then his young wife had succumbed to a rare form of cancer and now two miners have died by another unusual disease, one which deforms the victim and eats at his brain. Rutledge knows that something is going on at the mine that is making people sick and he wants to prove it. In the meantime, in Boston, Dr. Nikki Solari's Blue Grass musician roommate, Kathy Wilson, has disappeared and seems to have flipped out as she periodically calls Nikki and leaves weird terrified messages. In Washington, Ellen Kroft is fighting a losing battle as the lone consumer advocate on a rigged committee to evaluate a new proposed inoculation system that would include serums for thirty diseases in a single inoculation.
Except for Ellen the committee is stocked with M.D.s and P.H.D.s hand picked by the First Ladies staff to be acquiescent toward her pet project called Omnivax. Finally, Kathy Wilson is killed by a truck as she runs out of a bar screaming that they're after her. Nikki now notices that Kathy's face is deformed (same as the miners in Belinda) and asks her boss and mentor to check her brain for anything unusual. Matt finds out there is a toxic dump in a cave near the mine and has Lewis Slocumb guide him. unfortunately they get discovered and lewis gets wounded. Something sounds fishy to Ellen, especially the serum for the deadly African Hemorrhagic disease 'Lassa Fever' and her number crunching friend Rudy discovers some odd irregularities. Nikki heads to Kathy's home town, Belinda, for Kathy's funeral, where events lead our three main characters together for an exciting and thrilling finale with more than a few surprises. SUMMATION This is the sixth book I've read by Michael Palmer and I've always finished his books. This is really a compliment because my home has dozens of partially read books that, while not necessarily bad, just never really caught my interest. Of the six books of his that I read, this falls in the upper third. Fatal moves along nicely, is an easy read and some of the plot twists that seemed a little hokey, make sense as you read on. Like many good writers and magicians Palmer uses misdirection and the plot twist in this book was a surprise to me. What was not a surprise to me and is probably the reason I didn't give the book 5 stars is that I felt the main bad guy was too obvious. If I say any more I might give something away to you potential readers. Fatal is a good, worth while read, that I can heartily recommend and I give a high Four star rating.
If you haven't yet read Michael Palmer I recommend him highly as well. Remember I have finished all of his books and thats something I can't say about Stephen King
Rating: 
Summary: Convoluted and cliché-ridden medical thriller
Review: Michael Palmer's new novel, "Fatal" is seriously flawed. Not only does it rely on hackneyed situations to move the plot along, but it also veers off into too many directions and finally loses its focus completely. The hero of "Fatal" is Matt Rutledge, a Harvard-trained doctor who has returned to his home in West Virginia where his father, a miner, had died in a cave-in many years earlier. Matt has a vendetta against the owners of the Belinda Coal and Coke Company, who run the local mine where Matt's father died. Matt believes that the mine owners' shoddy safety practices contributed to his father's death. He also believes that illegal dumping of toxic chemicals by the mine owners contributed to his young wife's illness and subsequent death from a rare cancer, and that these same chemicals continue to endanger the health of the local inhabitants. Matt is a maverick who has little respect for authority and who has made many enemies because of his vocal opposition to the mine owners. Matt is soon faced with the biggest challenge of his life when several miners start showing startling symptoms. They become paranoid and aggressive and also have disfiguring lumps covering their faces. Matt's quest to solve this mystery, which he believes is related to the chemicals seeping from the local mine, brings him into contact with two women. One is Nikki Solari, a Massachusetts pathologist, who comes to Belinda for the funeral of a friend who died under mysterious circumstances. The other is Ellen Croft, a retired schoolteacher whose granddaughter suffers from severe autism, apparently caused by a defective vaccine. Only when these three people band together (with a little help from some mountain men, the Slocumb brothers) is the surprising answer to the mysterious illnesses finally revealed. The book doesn't work because it has too many plot twists and too little character development. Palmer's villains are heavy-handed and the ending is anti-climactic. "Fatal" would have been more meaningful had Palmer brought his characters to life and kept the plot more tightly focused.
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Summary: truth about vaccines
Review: Mr. Palmer's book will hopefully enlighten readers about the risks of vaccines. More children's, and adult's, lives are destroyed from many vaccines than die from the diseases for which the vaccines are given.
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Summary: Good Book
Review: Not one of the best I have read, but I was compelled to read it based on a "hot topic" it discusses. The book can very well be reality in today's society. It is sad and scary, but it is very very well written and hopefully, will open up some "closed eyes" to this dangerous situation. It is a good book.
Rating: 
Summary: Failure to connect
Review: The author started off well , by building a lot of excitement and suspense but the author fails to explain the presence of prions in a vaccine, designated to protect not to kill. As far as I know , prions are not a basic ingredient in vaccines.
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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
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Summary: Failure to connect
Review: The novel started off very well, creating a lot of suspense and an eagerness for the reader to find out what is the possible link between the two stories ( the autism causing vaccine and the toxic mine ). However, except perhaps to someone who is ignorant about biology, the author fails to fully explain the presence of prions in the vaccine. What are prions doing there in the first place ? I didnt know that prions were a basic element in a vaccine. Secondly, the vaccine was created with the intention to protect not to kill. So, it doesnt make sense at all.
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Summary: A medical "Perils of Pauline"
Review: There are so many cliff-hangers in this nicely put together work that you can almost see the commercial breaks when the movie comes to TV. This one is best read on your summer vacation, because if you start it during your work week, you're going to show up at the office yawning. It is entertaining from start to finish, with just enough character development to support the virtually relentless action.
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Summary: Fatal - A book with a lot of attraction.
Review: This better-than-most medical thriller by the creative Michael Palmer is elevated to the heights of a "can't-afford-to-miss" WOW of a book by the very enjoyable writing style of Palmer.
Interesting plot, likeable characters, believeable dialogue if you know anyone from the mountains of West Virginia - all these elements make for a great story.
Add in the gut-wrenching situations the characters find themselves involved in and the realistic narrative created by Palmer and it becomes a GREAT story. The wiggle-producing ending is the stuff all thrillers should be made of. "Fatal" provides it all in the nail-biting, adrenoline-rush genre. You simply cannot wait until the end arrives, then it is too soon for you because the pleasure is over.
If you listen to this book on audio, which is read wonderfully, One word of warning; if you are the LEAST BIT claustrophobic, DO NOT attempt to listen to tape #8 while in rush-hour traffic. It could prove extremely hazardous to your insurance rates. Palmer's detailed, realistic description of Matt's wild ride could cause the listener to embark on one of his own.
Highly recommend this awesome book!
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