What do You think about Natural Causes (1994)?
Took me a while to get into this. I don't know if the thickness of the book played with my mind or what, but at one point over the weekend I questioned whether I should continue. Palmer's reputation as an author whose books I enjoy is what kept me motivated, and once I got in about 100 pages it was smooth sailing until the end.I felt there could have been more character development in the book. So many people were introduced and given just enough suspicious traits to make the reader wonder if they were the 'bad guy' (or girl), but otherwise I kept forgetting who was who, and as the ending of the book unravelled, there were so many little details I missed that I had to keep thinking back and wondering how person 1 was connected to person 2, and then there are some connections that were never made earlier.Plot was good, and for its time back in 1994, alternative medicine hadn't taken hold in mainstream culture so it fits the time. Even today, I suspect there are doctors who would be skeptical of alternative healing, so kudos to the author for putting 'successes' with alternative healing into the plot. Would like another book about Sarah, or any of Palmer's protagonists, but that's something I've gotten used to, forgetting one main character and the cast of supporters from one book when it comes time to read the next.
—Kristin
Another great medical mystery by Palmer. Each of his stories has spooked me a little about doctors and especially hospitals but they are good and they do raise awareness of what can happen and I think it just puts you on guard when you do have to use a hospital. The story revolves around a hospital that is trying to use by conventional medical practices and alternative methods of healing and one resident doctor in particular, Dr. Sarah Baldwin, is she a quake and a killer, or is someone trying to set her up??? The only part of the story that I didn't like was the wrap up. As sometimes happens I think the author just can't figure out how to get all the story lines come together and finish up what has been a great story and suddenly it's over and you're shaking your head and saying REALLY. But even with that the book was great.
—Carol
A gripping medical novel that kept me sitting on the edge of my seat!! Page after page I was intrigued with the nightmare which Sarah finds herself caught up in.From back cover:"Dr. Sarah Baldwin races to a Boston hospital with a young woman whose normal labour has suddenly become a matter of life and death. As she struggles to save both mother and baby, she doesn't know that two other women have already died under horrifying identical circumstances. And so begins Sarah's own nightmare, as she learns that the prenatal herbal vitamins she prescribed are the only thing these three women have in commmon.Soon Sarah is fighting to save her career, her reputation, her life. For she's certain there must be some unknown factor linking these women, and as she gets closer to the truth, it becomes clear that someone will do anything, even murder, to keep a devastating secret".
—Louise
