Brainwaves

Rating:
Summary: Long and drawn out.
Review: Although it isn't in the list of the Joanna Blalock series, Brainwaves is the 8th book in the series. Dr. Karen Crendall, a noted neurologist was found dead in Memorial Hospital. Simon Murdock is convinced it was a suicide. Jake & Joanna disagree. Dr. Crandall was on the verge of a medical breakthrough using brain tissue DNA to recapture aural and visual memories. Joanna and Jake are convinced it was murder. But to prove their case they have to use the victim's revolutionary research and enter the recesses of Dr. Crandall's mind to unveil a killer hidden in memory's darkest realm.
Lately, the books by Leonard Goldberg have been either really good or really bad. Unfortunately, the bad ones have outweighed the good. Brainwaves was just too long and drawn out. The very beginning was great and I thought I had another thriller in my hands but it wasn't to be. It was ok, but I wouldn't rush out to read it.

Rating:
Summary: Long and drawn out.
Review: Although it isn't in the list of the Joanna Blalock series, Brainwaves is the 8th book in the series. Dr. Karen Crendall, a noted neurologist was found dead in Memorial Hospital. Simon Murdock is convinced it was a suicide. Jake & Joanna disagree. Dr. Crandall was on the verge of a medical breakthrough using brain tissue DNA to recapture aural and visual memories. Joanna and Jake are convinced it was murder. But to prove their case they have to use the victim's revolutionary research and enter the recesses of Dr. Crandall's mind to unveil a killer hidden in memory's darkest realm.
Lately, the books by Leonard Goldberg have been either really good or really bad. Unfortunately, the bad ones have outweighed the good. Brainwaves was just too long and drawn out. The very beginning was great and I thought I had another thriller in my hands but it wasn't to be. It was ok, but I wouldn't rush out to read it.

Rating:
Summary: cutting edge medical thriller
Review: Forensic pathologist Dr. Joanna Blalock is highly regarded in her field and frequently works with the police when their jobs overlap. Her favorite homicide detective to work with is her friend and live-in lover Jake Sinclair. They are now working together on the case of Dr. Karen Crandell, a neurologist who was found dead in her office. At first all signs point to a suicide, but Jake and Joanna soon figure out that somebody killed her but made it look like a realistic suicide.

Dr. Crandell was working on some cutting edge research that has mysteriously disappeared. Jake and Joanna are able to trace the theft and the killing to her colleague at the Brain Research Institution at Memorial Hospital but from there the trail goes cold. Joanna and Jake set a trap to catch a murderer, but can only hope he takes the bait.

Fans of Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs are going to like BRAINWAVES, a cutting edge medical thriller based on actual ongoing research. The mystery itself is fast paced and exciting but what makes this novel a scalpel cut above the rest is the way current technology is interposed throughout the story line, giving it a futuristic feel without slowing down the pace.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Pedestrian and predictable medical thriller.
Review: Leonard Goldberg has been writing medical thrillers for a number of years, and they usually range from fair to good. His latest, "Brainwaves," is at the lower end of the spectrum. Joanna Blalock, chief forensic pathologist at Memorial Hospital and her live-in lover, homicide detective Jake Sinclair, are again the main characters. Joanna and Jake are putting their heads together to solve the mysterious murder of Karen Crandell, a brilliant neurologist who was conducting cutting edge research in the area of the human brain. Who wanted Karen dead? Was it one of her colleagues at the hospital, jealous of her success and perhaps anxious to take credit for her accomplishments?

"Brainwaves" does not succeed for a number of reasons. The dialogue is forced and stilted and the characters are one-dimensional. The book has a minimum of suspense, since there are only a few possible suspects. The science offers nothing new that has not been covered in other similar novels. I recommend that you skip this one.

Rating:
Summary: Pedestrian and predictable medical thriller.
Review: Leonard Goldberg has been writing medical thrillers for a number of years, and they usually range from fair to good. His latest, "Brainwaves," is at the lower end of the spectrum. Joanna Blalock, chief forensic pathologist at Memorial Hospital and her live-in lover, homicide detective Jake Sinclair, are again the main characters. Joanna and Jake are putting their heads together to solve the mysterious murder of Karen Crandell, a brilliant neurologist who was conducting cutting edge research in the area of the human brain. Who wanted Karen dead? Was it one of her colleagues at the hospital, jealous of her success and perhaps anxious to take credit for her accomplishments?

"Brainwaves" does not succeed for a number of reasons. The dialogue is forced and stilted and the characters are one-dimensional. The book has a minimum of suspense, since there are only a few possible suspects. The science offers nothing new that has not been covered in other similar novels. I recommend that you skip this one.

Rating:
Summary: More of the same poor plot and writing
Review: One wonders what the LAPD did to the author Leonard Goldberg, that the author continues having his LAPD "premier homicide detective," Jake Sinclair, and his civilian girlfriend/partner Joanna Blalock, continue to act like Neanderthals, as they did in Goldberg's Fatal Care. When a doctor refuses to answer Jake's question about a national security matter, Joanna warns the doctor of "big trouble," and Jake tells the doctor that if helpful information were omitted, the doctor would be arrested, put in handcuffs, paraded down the hospital corridor and displayed to reporters. "You can answer their questions and show them your handcuffs at the same time."
In explaining the "NYPD Blue" show to Joanna's five-year-old nephew, Jake says that "nobody will care" if police officers hit suspects, so long as the suspect isn't shot. Jake tells Joanna he plans to handle two suspects "the old-fashioned way.... I'm going to shove them in a corner and scare the hell out of them."
When a suspect implies Jake is stupid, Jake lifts the suspect into the air by his shirt.
When an attorney objects to Jake questioning his client, Jake threatens to take the attorney and his client to jail, where they'll sit in the cold interrogation room.
When an intern refuses Jake admittance to the doctor's lounge, Jake threatens, "the last thing you want to do is get in the way of [an angry and upset] cop." Jake then picks the intern up by his armpits and moves him aside. Jake also misrepresents himself as "an officer of the court."
There's a misogynist thread to the book. A "middle aged" female neurosurgeon can't get anyone to sleep with her unless she pays them money. Women are continually described, and judged, depending on whether they have a "great body." Women are excluded from the list of murder suspects because women "kill with knives or poison or sometimes guns. But they don't bash people over the head.... And it would take a man to lift a dead body and lug it down the corridor...."
Goldberg's characters repeatedly define "nanotechnology" as meaning "where everything is scaled down a billion times." Although a nanometer is a billionth of a meter, it does NOT follow that nanotechnology is technology scaled down a billion times. Instead, nanotechnology is technology with dimensions of, usually, less than 100 nanometers. In a broader definition, nanotechnology can mean any sub-micron technology. Human hair is about 40,000 nanometers, or 40 microns, wide.
Goldberg finally puts his own previous book, Deadly Exposure, in the nightstand of one of this book's characters. That's just too cutesy.
This book is formulaic, Neanderthal, and lacking any elementary fact-checking. Skip this one -- hold out for the next one where, hopefully, Jake will be arrested for assault and rightfully thrown off the force and into jail.