Rating: Summary: A very,very wonderful book Review: This book had lots of twist and turns on every page and I just love that!!! This book also talks about a subject that just scares me as a parent and that made it so real to me. This was the first Palmer book i've read and will reading more of his work for sure.
Rating: Summary: A must read Review: This is definitely the most suspenseful book I've read in a long time, if not the most suspenseful. I listened to the unabridged audio edition, and it was a good thing. Had I read instead of listening, I would have been going so fast I would have missed some of the small details, and probably would have peeked at the ending. This book kept me guessing. Palmer held my interest until the very end, and I am hard to please when it comes to fiction. Nelson Demille is the only other fiction writer I've read who was able to keep me so enthralled.
Rating: Summary: Manipulative and corny Review: Wow. I'd heard good things about Mr. Palmer's "novels", so I was quite excited about "Fatal". It was quite an experience. Palmer has taken a very sketchy hot-button cause and pandered to American anti-medical hysteria. Which might have been OK... except for the writing. The dialogue was just this side of a fifth-grade "Choose Your Own Adventure" assignment, but I listened to the book on CD so I am willing to give Mr. Palmer one star, though grudgingly; he did approve all the repetitious descriptions (how many times are we expected to find "his shoulders filled the door frame" powerful and not just silly? Filled them with what? Bad writing?) and insipid conversations. Let me now count the cliches: the Evil Pharmaceutical Company, completely unafraid of lawsuits resulting from release of a flawed vaccine; the Noble Country Doctor (and a widower no less, just for that extra heartstring tug-- awwwww); the perfidy of big business and the Nefarious Medical Establishment. However, Mr. Palmer has taken this gem from Plots-R-Us and turned into a sparkling example of poorly researched propaganda. It is not true that there has never been a double-blind study of a vaccine. The charges of vaccine-caused autism have been refuted-- you can find more information at the Centers for Disease Control website. There is definitely more research to be done, but the link for autism does not exist and is only supported by those with a political agenda that disregards the lives of children. Cold science does not titillate, but lacking substance or a somewhat credible narrative, Mr. Palmer has pulled out all the stops. The characters experienced no development. The only notable traits any of them displayed (actually, most of them) was an amazing lack of regard for human life and the ability to go through the grieving process in one overwrought paragraph. This book is, in my opinion, not only poorly constructed but morally delinquent. If even a single unvaccinated child dies from an easily avoidable illness (and some certainly might, if public opinion is influenced by this sort of one-sided claptrap), I hope Mr. Palmer and his ilk consider the money they make to be a suitable exchange. I won't.
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