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Book Reviews Title The
Patient Fiction-Net
Rating Buy It
From Amazon.co.uk - BUY
NOW! Cover
Story Dr. Jessie
Copeland is the best. Dedicated to saving lives,
gifted and highly respected, she has taken her
surgical skills to the highest degree. Now, along
with a miraculous bio-engineering invention, she is
about to revolutionize the whole field of
neurosurgery. Claude Malloche
is suffering from a brain tumor that only Jessie
and the new technique can cure. But Malloche stands
for everything that Jessie is against. A mysterious
and ruthless killer, he is holding the Boston
hospital where Jessie works and the city to ransom:
if Jessie fails to cure Malloche, hundreds of
innocent people will die. If she succeeds, Malloche
may disappear once more to continue his deadly
work. the dilemma facing Jessie is brutally simple:
what do you do to save the life of a ruthless man
who, if cured, will go on to kill, and kill
again? We
Say Michael Palmer's
novel The Patient is a extraordinary medical
thriller. Palmer's novel not only examines the
ethical as well as political choices doctors are
faced with daily as they practice their craft, but
biological terrorism as well. As technology
advances, questions about just what is too much
technology are often raised. We now live in an age
when advances in medicine can also be use to kill.
Palmer's main character, Dr. Jessie Copeland is at
the forefront in the research for more effective
treatments in the field of neurology. Jessie is not
only dedicated to her career but she is gifted with
compassion and integrity. She is not out to climb
the ladder of success, but due to her talents and
dedication, she is pushed into the forefront of a
drama that could cost the lives of
thousands. Jessie is the
type of doctor that people respect not because she
demands it, but because she is good at her job and
she honestly cares about those she treats. Jessie
has been able to succeed despite the ego of her
boss, Dr. Gilbride. Employed in a predominantly
male field, Jessie must be better than her
superiors, and that causes additional problems for
her. Throughout the novel her compassion and
dedication often force her to make unimaginable
choices. In Jessie, Palmer creates a very real
character who is not perfect but realistic enough
to be likable. Jessie's moments of doubt and
indecision make her seem more approachable. She is
not an overachieving ice princess, she is just a
likable woman with extraordinary
talents. Claude Malloche
on the other hand epitomizes everything that is
evil in people. In sharp contrast to Jessie, who
values life, Malloche does not value any life other
than his own. In order to preserve his own
existence Malloche is prepared to destroy the lives
of countless others without any remorse. His
selfish pursuit for a cure for his brain tumor
places Jessie in the position where she must choose
between saving an evil man's life so he can kill
again or risk the death of hundreds maybe thousands
of innocent people. Alex Bishop the
CIA operative that has spent the past five years
searching for Claude Malloche is a man driven by
his need for revenge. Also a sharp contrast to
Jessie's compassion, Alex becomes a key figure in
Jessie's life. While Palmer does create an
underlying romantic link between the two, nothing
immediately develops between them. They don't jump
into bed with each other after their first date,
life and their responsibilities get in the way of a
relationship. Instead the story is allowed to
progress without the gratuitous sex scenes and this
made me like the novel that much more. The Patient
brings together terrorism and ethical choices into
a fast paced novel that made me want to finish the
novel as soon as possible. Well written and well
thought out, I found myself engaged in the story
and interested in the information that Palmer has
obviously researched. I was not able to predict
what was going to happen although I did have an
idea of who Malloche was early on in the novel.
What was unclear to me, was how Malloche was going
to effectively use terrorism to obtain a cure for
himself. I was impressed with Palmer's ability to
present a story that was not so unbelievable even
though the technology described does not exist,
yet. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and feel it is
well worth reading. Review by: Yumi
Nagasaki-Taylor |
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