Showing posts with label Friday's forgotten books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Friday's forgotten books. Show all posts

Friday, January 16, 2026

In Reference to Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Cry the Beloved Country

In Reference to Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Cry the Beloved Country:  NPR once had a program segment on "books that helped us grow up." While the ones mentioned reflect some of the more YA-themed tit...

Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: HE DONE HER WRONG

Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: HE DONE HER WRONG: He  Done Her Wrong:  The Great American Novel and Not a Word in It -- And No Music, Too by Milt Gross (1930) American copyright law is a str...

Patricia Abbott: FFB: OH, WILLIAM, Elizabeth Strout

 Patricia Abbott: FFB: OH, WILLIAM, Elizabeth Strout

Friday, December 19, 2025

In Reference to Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: The Oxford Book of American Detective Stories

 In Reference to Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: The Oxford Book of American Detective Stories

Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: BLOOD RED

Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: BLOOD RED: Blood   Red  by John Creasey (originally published as Red Eye for the Baron , under the pseudonym "Anthony Morton," 1958; publishe...

Patricia Abbott: Friday's Forgotten Books: THE RETURN OF THE TWELVES, Pauline Clark

 Patricia Abbott: Friday's Forgotten Books: THE RETURN OF THE TWELVES, Pauline Clark

Friday's Forgotten Books: Dead Head by Dr. Allen Wyler


Long before my health stuff started getting serious and Sandi’s cancer stuff hit, I would read a medical thriller now and then. I was looking for something else on my blog, found this, and thought I would share again. From the archive…

 

Following up on his novel, Deadly Errors, the author has crafted yet another superb and at times very disturbing medical thriller. For neurosurgeon Russell Lawton, the conference where he has presented his paper on connecting a robotic hand to the neurons in a monkey’s brain by way of on interface between the two has been routine though the material isn’t. If it works, someday paralyzed humans might be able to move their limbs by way of thinking it to happen. What has been a concept deep in the realm of science fiction is gradually becoming modern reality.

 

Stopped after his speech by a beautiful woman masquerading as a reporter, he agrees to be interviewed and follows her willingly outside of the Moscone Convention Center. That will be the last willing thing he does as he is soon grabbed and removed from the street by Islamic terrorists. Before long, he is in the air in a private jet on his way back to his laboratory at the National Institutes of Health.

 

With his young daughter a hostage and faced with death, Dr. Russell Lawton has no choice but to cooperate. The terrorists are demanding his help and they are proposing something so unthinkable at every level that Dr. Russell Lawton is revolted to the very core of his being. Beyond the incredible medical challenges, the very idea they insist will be done raises huge moral and ethical challenges. And yet, Dr. Lawton has no choice if he wishes to save his life, his daughter’s, as well as other potential victims.

 

What follows is an incredible read that propels the reader on an emotional roller coaster. Dr. Allen Wyler again uses his extensive medical background to bring forth insight into a complex medical problem. Those very detailed bits of medical information are skillfully woven into the story and do nothing to slow it down.

 

At the same time, unlike most thrillers, the main characters in this book soon to be released are rich and detailed. Dr. Lawton’s emotional agony both in terms of his daughter as well as what he has been asked to do come alive for the reader. This is also true of other characters unwittingly drawn in such as FBI Special Agent Sandra Phillips who is part of the secondary and independent storyline of the kidnapping of Lawton’s daughter.

 

The result is an excellent fast paced read full of medical information and surgical procedures, action, and deep moral questions. This thriller with a currently scheduled release date of February 6, 2007, written by Dr. Allen Wyler is not easy to put down once finished and sure to leaven the reader with a lot of imagery and questions about the possible medical breakthrough and its meaning.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4jeGaOL

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple © 2007, 2010, 2025