What do You think about Fatal (2003)?
It took me quite a while to really get into this novel - probably somewhere around the 100 page mark. There is a possibility that what kind of through me off in the prologue was the bit about "explosive diarrhea"... I had dinner shortly before I began the story. Anyways, of the three lead characters I particularly enjoyed reading Matt and Nikki; I found that I wasn't really all that interested in Ellen; she did grow on me to some extent near the end. However, one thing that irked me about Matt and Nikki was that they had to fall in love. I would have been just as happy if they didn't. I also liked the fact that there was a good deal more to the "mountain folk" than I originally expected since they started off as stereotypes. On a side note, if this would ever go the big screen (or small screen) Chris Bauer should definitely portray Chief Grimes.
—Lauren Stoolfire
Well what can I say? I had heard a lot about Michael Palmer’s books over the years, so when I found this one in my stacks I picked it up. I was extremely disappointed in this book.The story starts out with a good premise, the possibility that toxic waste in a mine is causing serious illness in a number of people. Dr. Matt Ruttledge has an axe to grind with the mine owner’s and is bound and determined to prove his theory. When a doctor from Boston comes to town for a friend’s funeral an attempt is made on her life. At this point Dr. Rutledge and the beautiful Dr. Nikki Solari team up against the mining company. At the same time Ellen Kroft is getting ready to vote on the release of a new vaccine that may or may not be dangerous. When someone threatens the life of Ms. Kroft she decides to find out if her suspicions are correct. Somehow all three of these people end up together to fight really, really bad guys.The problem with this book is that there were too many threads that had to come together in a believable fashion. The good people were all candidates for sainthood, and the bad guys were all so cartoonishly bad that I found myself laughing out loud. The love scenes were clunky at best with eye rolling dialogue and just when everything would seem to be coming to a head Mr. Palmer jerks the rug out from under us. Not once or twice but what feels like an endless string of really bad luck and timing. I was groaning out loud at the preposterous twists and turns. A few surprises are expected but I was getting whiplash for it all, and I am sure my insurance company wasn’t going to pay damages.Obviously I don’t recommend the book, unless you are a masochist and enjoy inflicting the pain of cliché after cliché; the bad news for you is that there is a happy ending after all.
—Linda
Overall, it was a good 'story'...trying to link what everyone thought were three random medical issues, despite the fact that these three cases were located in different parts of the country. It started out really interesting...how can a case of paranoid patients with neurofibromas (one in W. Virginia and the other in Boston) be linked to a pregnant woman in Chicago who thought she had the flu, but ended up with a fever and diarrhea that caused bleeding from every part of her body? What I like about Mr. Palmer is his ability to explain medical procedures and and healthcare policies with ease. what I don't like about him is his tendency to ramble on and on seemingly going nowhere with his explanations. This book (the paperback) was 509 pages! The story should have ended around page 321...it dragged on unnecessarily. It was a REAL struggle to finish it. I plowed through because I was ready to connect the dots. He seemed to add incidents just to make it a bit more convoluted to throw us off, but it only served to make things more boring. I don't know if I can recommend it unless you are truly fascinated by environmental issues (toxic dumps, coal mines) and vaccine-related illnesses and the supposed connection to autism and other similar diseases. The first Michael Palmer book I read was A Heartbeat Away and I really enjoyed it so I set out to read all of his books. Fatal was my second book and I think I need to take a quick break and read something more fast-paced before I dive back into the rest of his books.
—Laronica Conway
