SleuthSayers: Rolling With The Punches by Steve Liskow

SleuthSayers: Rolling With The Punches:  by Steve Liskow The last two years have shown the wisdom of not asking "How can things get even worse?" Fortunately, most of us a...

Monday With Kaye: "The Girl Without a Name" by Sandra Block

If you wish to read in order the preceding book is Little Black Lies…..

The Girl Without a Name by Sandra Block

This is the second psychological suspense medical thriller featuring Dr. Zoe Goldman. She is in her last year of residency as a psychiatrist, and on probation, trying to help her patients as best she can. She’s especially taken with the young girl who has been brought into the psych ward of the Children’s Hospital not knowing who she is or how she got there. She may actually have a name, but it could be Candy or Daneesha, or something else.

Zoe herself, suffers from ADHD and doesn’t think her Adderall is working well enough. She tries to keep others from knowing about the ADHD, which could hinder her work. In fact, in this world of off-balance people, some are more out of kilter than others, but none are normal, whatever that means.

The handsome but married Dr. Berringer is supervising Zoe and complications arise on that front. A fellow resident named Jason is her friend, but teases her and sometimes gets too close to her secret. Her brother Scotty is a breath of fresh air and normalcy, contrasting with the patients, all of whom are severely mentally ill, and the doctors. Zoe is determined to get to the bottom of who Jane Doe is and, after she discovers that, how to find the ones responsible for her condition. As she defies her superiors to help the girl, not only her career hangs in the balance, but her relationship with the love of her life, Mike, who is considering leaving her for a job in another state.

I loved entering this strange place, where people don’t know who they are, or pretend they’re someone else, to try to get to sanity. It’s a very strong second book and I’m looking forward to the third.

Reviewed by Kaye George, author of Death in the Time of Ice for Suspense Magazine

Monday With Kaye: "Patient One" by Leonard Goldberg (Reviewed by Kaye George)

With everything we have gone through from a medical standpoint, I absolutely stay away from books marketed as medical thrillers. Kaye George kicks off February with her review below…

Patient One by Leonard Goldberg

I hope this medical thriller doesn't deter someone from going to the emergency room when they need to go. Believe me, the people in this book shouldn't have.

A group of Chechen terrorists have planned it just right so that the poisoned President of the United States and his family are sent to the specific hospital they can control. A group of dignitaries, including the leader of Russia are having their state dinner at the Beverly Hills Wilshire Hotel because the Russian leader's wife is enamored of movie stars. Security forces grumbled about having two hundred fifty people in an area they weren’t used to securing, but the diplomats bowed to the opportunity to entertain the guests and perhaps sway their opinions. Up until the guests started getting sick, the biggest concern of the visit has been a friendship pact, soon to be signed, that would liberate America from OPEC control of the oil market.

Luckily, forty-five-year-old John Merrill, the youngest president since John F. Kennedy, is, everyone thinks, in excellent health. He should be able to weather the effects of the poison like everyone else is predicted to do. His gastric problems have been kept from the public, but he's in danger of dying from the poison.

Meanwhile, the terrorist have taken control of the hospital and are holding the first family and several others hostage. It's up to Dr. David Ballineau, the emergency room physician on call that night, and the very capable nurse Carolyn. Neither of these two are quite what they seem.

Warning: I enjoyed the book very much, but this is not reading for the squeamish. The effects of the poison are vividly and often portrayed using blood, orifices, and bodily functions.

Reviewed by Kaye George, Author of Smoke for Suspense Magazine

Monday With Kaye: "The Trial" by Larry D. Thompson (Reviewed by Kaye George)

With all the medical stuff we have gone through the last several years, medical dramas and medical thrillers are a definite and automatic no go for this reader. If they are still on your reading radar Kaye George’s pick this week might be down your alley.

 

The Trial by Larry D. Thompson

This thriller exposes some lethal potential problems in the way pharmaceuticals are policed and approved. The reader needs to suspend a bit of disbelief to go along with the complete scenario, but, if you can do that, there are enough plot turns to keep you going here.

The relationship between attorney Luke Vaughan and his daughter creates a dilemma for the lawyer when he's caught between his love for his daughter and his budding love for the woman he knows could make him happy.

The first part of the novel felt compressed, maybe hurried, in getting to the legal portion of the plot, the actual trial that the first half led up to. In this section, there was some confusion about time, about what was backstory and what was unfolding. The whole scenario could have been avoided by the main character's shocking neglect to provide insurance coverage for his daughter. But, given that, most of the rest of the story was plausible.

This reviewer is familiar with the locales, which gave me a special interest in the book. Vaughan was born and raised in San Marcos and graduated from the University of Texas, the area where I've lived for the last six years.

After quitting his high-powered job because of the physical problems he is having, Vaughan moves back to his hometown and encounters a woman who had a crush on him in high school, Sue Ellen Taggert. They are both unmarried at the time and each has one child, and a relationship begins to develop. An interesting character, the motorcycle riding Professor Whizmo, enters their lives and, later, they're all glad he's around.

Vaughan's daughter's troubles begin with a drug trial which may cost her her life.

The trial threatens Vaughan's relationships with his daughter as well as with his new love, and also threatens their very lives as Vaughan races against time to expose the dirty dealings of an almost unbelievably corrupt drug company, which will stop at nothing to win, and a crooked FDA official, who is looking out for number one.

Reviewed by Kaye George, Author of A Patchwork of Stories for Suspense Magazine