Saturdays With Kaye: Mercy by Michael Palmer

Mercy by Michael Palmer

The wide-ranging plot of this medical-ethical thriller unfolds gradually, revealing the maddening complexities of the right to die issue.

Dr. Julie Devereux is have problems with her twelve-year-old son since her split from his artist father and her new relationship with Sam, a high school history teacher. Julie has long been an outspoken advocate for death with dignity. However, this works against her when terminal and badly injured patients start dying prematurely in the hospital where she works.

Roman “Romey” Janowki, an unscrupulous manipulator, has brought White Memorial from a second-rate hospital to a well-run model facility since he took over as administrator. His methods don’t always align with ethical behavior, though. He’s gotten his hospital there by concentrating on the bottom line, not by prolonging the lives of expensive patients.

Julie is thrown into a dilemma when her fiance, Sam, is brought in following a car wreck with injuries that will leave him a quadriplegic. When he begs her to end his life, she hesitates while he calls her a hypocrite. More questionable deaths are piling up around her as a representative from Very Much Alive, an organization opposed to assisted death, gets involved. Just as they’ve convinced Julie betray her deepest beliefs and try to save Sam, he dies from an unexpected condition. He has been scared to death. Have the other deaths occurred this way? Julie doesn’t know she’s being closely tracked by an ex-cop with anger management issues.

Excellent suspense, plus explorations of right to die, hospital ethics, and other issues.

Reviewed by Kaye George, Author of Requiem in Red, for Suspense Magazine