Customer Reviews

Diagnosis Murder #7: The Double Life

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This is the best novel since Death Merchant. When Mark is almost killed until Jessie comes to his rescue. Wakes up to find that he's lost his memory and has a wife. On the top that, The killer is still out there. This novel has a lot of good twists and turns. You have to get this book this is a real page turner.

Diagnosis Murder #7: The Double Life, by Lee Goldberg is the seventh installment in the Diagnosis Murder series. Dr. Mark Sloan awakens from an accident to find that two years of his life have passed of which he has no memory.

Goldberg's Diagnosis Murder novels are based from the hit TV show of the same name, for which Goldberg also wrote and produced. Dr. Sloan is the Chief of Staff at Community General Hospital in Los Angeles. In his spare time, Sloan solves mysteries and tracks down murderers, with the help of his son Steve (a homicide detective) and fellow doctors Amanda Bentley and Jessie Travis.

This book was nearly impossible to put down. I ended up reading it in one day. The murder mystery was very fast-paced and had a lot going on, but not so much that it became confusing. Goldberg weaves a complex mystery full of murders and puzzles. As always, he gives Dr. Sloan so much depth, emotion, and humor that you can imagine Dick Van Dyke playing the part on TV. Goldberg has proved once again that he is a master of writing whodunits.

Mark Sloan is hot on the trail of a killer. Since he doesn't really have any proof yet, he's working with Amanda and Jesse to find something to give to his son Steve. He knows there's something there. He just needs to find it.

Obviously, someone agrees with him. One morning on his way into the hospital, a car tries to run him down. He hits his head and goes into a comma.

When he wakes up, three days have passed. Mark quickly discovers that he's lost his memory of the last two years including his marriage to Dr. Emily Noble. In fact, he doesn't remember anything about this pediatrician.

He's also forgotten the details of the investigation. But he hopes that working on the case will bring back his memory. He quickly begins to find the pieces again. There is a rash of deaths connected to survivors of near death experiences. Too many to be a coincidence. But who is doing the killing? What connection had Mark found?

This is another fast read in a great tie-in series. As always, Lee Goldberg has captured the characters from the TV show and brought them to life on the page. There are several scenes that had me laughing, and I really enjoyed a couple scenes between Mark and Jesse's wife Susan. Unfortunately, the plot was a little weak. I saw a major plot point coming long before the characters did. And the ending was a little rushed with Mark making a couple jumps I didn't follow.

Even though this isn't the strongest entry in the series, it was still a fast, fun read sure to please fans of the show and the books.

Novelist and TV writer Lee Goldberg turns in another winner with the latest original "Diagnosis Murder" novel, THE DOUBLE LIFE (Signet). From 1993-1999, the popular mystery TV series starred Dick Van Dyke as Dr. Mark Sloane, veteran doctor and amateur sleuth, aided in his investigations by his son, LAPD Lt. Steve Sloan (Barry Van Dyke), and his circle of friends at the hospital.

As one of the architects for the TV show -- Goldberg served as writer and then producer for several seasons -- he is in a unique position to continue the adventures of Dr. Sloan and company. His original novels tread a fine line between keeping up the warm characterizations and engaging mysteries that were a hallmark of the series, all the while expanding and exploring the world of "Diagnosis Murder."

In THE DOUBLE LIFE, Dr. Sloan ends up in his own hospital's ICU after an attempt on his life. When he wakes up, he discovers he can't remember anything from the last two years of his life -- including a wife he doesn't recognize. Struggling to come to terms with his current state, he learns that before the attempt on his life, he was investigating a series of mysterious deaths. Without his memory, Mark has to start his entire investigation from scratch. But as the clues point in two distinctly different directions, Mark and his son find themselves at odds, as the mystery begins to drive them apart. And all the while, Dr. Sloan is still a target for the real killer ...

With his "Diagnosis Murder" novels (as well as his "Monk" novels), Goldberg does an excellent job of building on the characters we know and love. He also displays a knack of creating mysteries within mysteries, much like a puzzle box: no sooner do you have one thing figured out than you discover it's actually hiding something even more sinister. As such, THE DOUBLE LIFE is not just an excellent continuation of the series -- but an excellent mystery novel.

This is an excellent book! It grabs you at the very beginning and keeps you spellbound throughout the book! I recommend it to anyone who loves mysteries!

The Diagnosis Murder series is one of my fave `light' reads, and I have been with the books since the start. But, I felt that this installment was less enjoyable than the others. Mark is on the trail of a murderer when he is run down in the hospital parking garage; this leads to Mark being in a comatose state. For the first half of the book you believe you're reading about Mark solving a murder, but he's actually only dreaming. It was very disjointed - the dream state versus what was actually happening in the present. The best part was that Steve was able to solve a mystery alone since Mark was in the hospital; Steve and the rest of the gang really came to the forefront and that was nice. Overall, this book lacked the same `voice' of the others and the mystery was not that captivating because the main character of the series wasn't solving the case actively.

Dr. Mark Sloan is hot on the heels of a killer when an attempt on his life lands him in Intensive Care. He wakes up in strange surroundings to find that much of his recent memory has been erased... or has it? His son, a local police detective, picks up on the investigation and learns that nearly a dozen murders are connected to a company that provides home nursing care. In each case, the causes of death had been listed as natural, but there are too many similarities to be coincidental and it appears that the company employs a duo of murdering health care providers who are playing a deadly game of "game over". Meanwhile, Dr. Sloan is haunted by strange dreams that may hold the key to solving the mystery. As the father and son duo get closer to the killers, the action heats up, concluding in the typical edge-of-the-seat manner that characterizes a good murder mystery.

While entertaining at times, I'm afraid this book lacked big-picture appeal. The main character is saddled with amnesia and nightmares, and the dream sequences interspersed throughout the book add a sense of confusion. This is likely the desired effect the author intended, but it could potentially frustrate the casual reader. The father and son competition gives the narrative some added personality, but the mystery itself is a little dry. Most hardcore mystery fans will enjoy this book despite the vanilla-like taste you get from the memory loss and multiple dream sequences, but anyone who doesn't appreciate the genre would be better off staying away.