Customer Reviews

Dead Head

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Abducted at gunpoint by terrorists, brain surgeon Dr. Russell Lawton, thinks this is a mistake--what could they possibly want with him? To his horror, he finds out they have kidnapped his only child, Angela, and are threatening to bury her alive if he does not help them with a plan to carry out an attack on the United States.

The terrorists have a diabolic plan including totally obliterating all of America's computer systems, thereby throwing the nation into complete chaos. True to form, the terrorists will use explosive devices to execute their plan. Meanwhile we are given, glimpses of little Angela and her experiences as a hostage. The FBI became involved when Russell's ex-wife, Marci, accuses Russell of kidnapping his own child, (due to a brutal child custody suit). With the clock still running, the situation results in a macabre surgery that Russell must perform to satisfy the wants of the terrorists in order to preserve his daughter's life

Russell works for days on end, with little rest or nourishment. The constant threats begin to work on him emotionally and mentally. Being hounded by these intruders always observing his life is maddening, and they outman him and he can see no good coming from any of this.

Dead Head is a medical thriller written by a real brain surgeon. Although there are many medical scenes, these are usually explained in dialogue or monologue to help readers understand the action. This form of writing is very enjoyable, and maintains thereader's attention. Very realistic characters also draw you into the fast-paced action.It's got the good guy versus the bad guys element coupled with a well-written novel.

"Sure I know the syndrome. (locked in) It's a neurological disorder characterized by complete paralysis of voluntary muscles except those that control eye movement. It could be the result of a head injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis, or drug overdose..."

Armchair Interviews says: A thriller filled with terrorists to make any reader's day.

Russell Lawton is a neurosurgeon who works for the NIH and is presenting a paper on his research at a medical meeting. His special interest area is brain-computer connections. He is kidnapped by Muslim terrorists and is forced to help them preserve the body and brain of one of their critically injured colleagues. His daughter's life is in the balance, along with the brother of his assistant, whose life is also threatened. He must devise a way to let the injured terrorist speak to his co-conspirators, even if his head is separated from his body and preserved. Dr. Lawton overcomes obstacle after obstacle in his need to have his daughter spared a horrible death. The action and plot are non-stop and grab you from the moment you read the first few pages. The ending is somewhat of a surprise and is well written.

Start reading it - and you won't be able to put it down until you're done! Writtn by a neurosurgeon and neuroscientist, the book gives you plenty of scientific information in very understandable way.

Every character has a personality which sticks with you after you put the book down. What a crew! It reads so credibly, I wanted to keep that head alive to learn all its involuntary intelligence. I wanted that head kept alive in custody! Dr. Wyler, what's next????

The phrase spine tingling takes on a whole new meaning in Allen Wyler's latest thriller, Dead Head. Wyler's fast-paced story spans the country and thrusts NIH research neurosurgeon Russell Lawton into a desperate battle against time, terrorists and the Feds to save his young daughter, Angela. No less desperate is a cell of Middle Eastern extremists, who threaten to bury the child alive. The leader of the cell, a ruthless former battlefield surgeon, forces Russell to use his strictly theoretical research in brain-body synthesis in a frantic attempt to keep his gravely wounded comrade alive long enough to complete his deadly assignment.

Closing in from the other side is savvy FBI Special Agent Sandra Phillips. Brought into what appears to be a parental custody dispute between Russell and his former wife, the agent soon realizes that something much larger and far more sinister is going on.

In less skilled hands this chilling "what if" story could have easily fallen flat, but Wyler, himself a neurosurgeon, takes an utterly unfathomable concept and makes it completely feasible. As Russell fights to save his daughter, the reader is swept up in a nightmare scenario where medical boundaries and personal safety take a back seat to one man's courage and ingenuity.

I loved this book. The characters, the plot, a terrific ending - but what I was particularly enthralled with, absolutely intrigued by was the "dead-head" premise of the book - a premise that I imagine only a neurosurgeon like Dr. Wyler could have imagined - and the image of a human head, suspended eerily in a dimly lit room .... Well, to say more would give away the plot, but I can already see it on the big screen. A fantastic book. Mike Lawson

A book written by Allen Wyler was a good book. The book he wrote is called Dead Head. It was a really good book. It was a spell binding book. The reason it because it had a lot of detail in it.
A guy that goes by the name of Russell Lawton gets kidnapped. The people tat kidnapped him needed his help for a surgery. To make sure Russell would help them they kidnapped his daughter and if he failed they would kill her. When Russell's ex wife found out that her daughter had been kidnapped, she blamed it on Russell. The FBI raided Russell's NIH office.
Some of the reasons I liked this book was because it was a thrilling book to read. It had a lot of action and it was never boring. It left me wanting to read more of Allen Wyler's books. I could not put this book down and it left me wanting to see what happens next.
Some of the reasons that I didn't like this book were that it was a long book and it took a long time to read. It was a difficult book to read and to understand. Overall I thought that this was a good book but I had some reasons not to like it!G4RFT5V'

Allen Wyler pens another engrossing medical thriller in his second novel DEAD HEAD. Fusing together an eclectic blend of science, science fiction, and technology, Wyler has outdone himself in the tale of neurosurgeon Russell Lawton. Russell's renowned research on primates has created the possibility that paraplegics could move their limbs with the aid of computers, and has drawn dangerous attention. He is kidnapped from a medical conference by Middle Eastern terrorists who are angered by President Bush's war in Iraq. A fellow terrorist has been injured in an accident and they need to keep his brain functioning. His entire lower body has been crushed and the prognosis is grim. Their solution? A head transplant! This is where Russell comes in, as the surgeon they entrust their cohort's life to. Russell will not cooperate with the outlaws until they place him in a precarious predicament: they have kidnapped his daughter, Angela, and will kill her if he refuses to help or if their associate dies.

Russell has no choice but aid the terrorists and become an accessory to unthinkable crimes. To make matters even more difficult, the surgery must be performed in Rusell's laboratory in the heavily secured National Institutes of Health, and the country's terror alert is elevated. He must find a way to get three Middle Easterners and their patient past armed guards during a time of intensified Homeland Security. If he gives the scheme away, Angela dies. Angela's time is waning as the patient's life slips away, and Russell can't afford to make mistakes. Can he perform a miracle and successfully complete the first human head transplant?

Allen Wyler's own medical experience as a practicing neurosurgeon makes the plot incredibly convincing. On the surface, the storyline seems implausible and a tad unlikely. However, Wyler explains in layman's terms complicated medical procedures involving neuroscience. In turn, the impossible endeavor of transplanting a human head seems right within our grasp. The book draws on current paranoia surrounding the "War on Terror" and insurgent beheadings in Iraq and Afghanistan. Also the author of the 2005 release, DEADLY ERRORS, Wyler is as adept at fiction as healthcare. I sincerely hope that he continues to write more fascinating medical thrillers.

This book would have benefited greatly by having at least one editorial pass to cover grammar and even spelling. One of the character's names goes back and forth between Raveena and Ravenna enough that you wonder if he was paying attention while he wrote. Granted, Ravenna is a neighborhood in Seattle, the author's home town, so it is perhaps conceivable the typos were invisible.

And this would be a first: a medical thriller written by a doctor who spelled CANAL c-a-n-e-l. I lost count of the number of sentences that just stumbled through grammar, as if he changed the first half of the phrase without looking at how it affected the other half.

The book was plagued enough with these problems that I had a hard time buying into the supposed selling point: a neurologist writes about keeping a detached head alive.

The other major reason I give this book (my first review for Amazon - I've never been so compelled to write one) a thumbs-down is because the plot, while timely and forward-thinking, suffers from being overly fabricated to support the storyline.

Specifically, the author shortcuts situational events so implausibly that I feel compelled to warn potential readers to throw common sense out the window. Terrorists can be smart, organized and scary, but they can't cover the logistical challenges presented in this scenario. Killing police officers in public, flying jets, kidnapping family members, disposing of bodies, going in and out of federal buildings at will, unescorted, etc.

I had hopes this would be an insightful and intriguing thriller. It reads almost exactly like a hacked attempt at publishing fiction by a doctor who needs to be held to the same level of scrutiny and editorial accountability as anyone else seeking to be published.

I loved this book and was not bored for a second. These days, with my ever-shrinking attention span, that is quite a feat. I think Dr. Wyler has a great career ahead of him as a novelist.