5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Conventional medical thriller about gene transfer., December 25, 2001
This review is from: Fatal Care (Paperback)
Leonard's Goldberg's medical thrillers have similar titles. Some of the books he has written are "Deadly Harvest," "Deadly Medicine" and "Deadly Care." Goldberg's latest is "Fatal Care." Do you notice a certain sameness? Unfortunately, this novel is too much like its predecessors, not just in title but in theme and execution.
"Fatal Care" features Joanna Blalock as a brilliant and beautiful forensic pathologist, with a touch of Sherlock Holmes and Nancy Drew in her. Joanna is a top-notch scientist, a brilliant diagnostician and a tireless sleuth. She loves to take foolish risks to get at the truth. Her lover is Jake Sinclair, who is a both a hunk and a homicide detective.
This time around, the mystery revolves around a revolutionary treatment for clearing out blocked arteries. Not only does the treatment clean out arteries, but it also miraculously turns back the clock and makes the arteries young again! What could go wrong? You guessed it. There is a troubling side effect. The treatment induces terminal cancer in those who receive it.
Joanna and her colleagues are called upon to look into this treatment in order to deduce why the patients were afflicted with cancer. The investigation brings Joanna up against the nasty bunch of people in Bio-Med, a multi-million dollar genetics laboratory where there are some unusual and unauthorized experiments going on. The people who run Bio-Med will do anything to keep their experiments a secret, including killing anyone who suspects them of doing illegal research. As corpses begin to pile up, Joanna risks her life to get at the truth lurking in Bio-Med's laboratories.
"Fatal Care" has many flaws. It is filled with cliched situations and stock characters. Naturally, Joanna puts herself in danger with predictable results. The only redeeming feature of the novel is the science. Goldberg speaks about gene transfer as if he really understands what it is all about and I found this portion of the book to be fascinating. If Goldberg would work as hard at setting up an original plot as he does at fleshing out the scientific research in his book, "Fatal Care" might have risen above the ordinary.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Troubling book, December 20, 2001
This review is from: Fatal Care (Paperback)
This book is about a forensic pathologist, Joanna Blalock, and an LAPD homicide investigator, Jake Sinclair, who routinely and joyfully violate citizens' Constitutional rights.
When Joanna is denied permission to remove original data books and slides from a medical lab, she threatens to sic the FDA and NIH on the lab and "tear the place apart." When Joanna wants to search a back room at the lab, instead of getting a warrant, she and an employee get the access code and sneak in at night.
When Jake is denied permission to board a yacht without a warrant, he chokes the guard until the man's face turns red. When the man assents, Jake continues choking the guard until his face turns purple, just to teach proper respect for the LAPD.
When an attorney denies permission to search the yacht without a warrant, Jake threatens to detain him for hours. Joanna chimes in with a threat to come back with a dozen medical examiners, searching the yacht for days, in addition to each of the owner's homes and offices.
When an escort service owner won't show business records to Jake and his partner, Jake looks on as his partner kicks the man's chair out from under him, so the man's head "bounced off the wooden floor." Jake adds a threat to shut the man's business down by having police officers follow each of the escorts wherever she goes, and reporting the man to the IRS.
When a family planning doctor is disrespectful, Jake threatens to "run your ass in and turn your life into a living hell," and to get the doctor's medical license removed.
Will this pair of black sheep abusing their official power be brought to justice? No - you see, they're the "good guys." It's OK in this book to violate the Constitution and beat up witnesses if you're a "good guy."
The book also contains a few bloopers along the way. The Postal Inspector is NOT in charge of private mail services like Mail Boxes Etc. These services provide "mail boxes," not "P.O. Boxes." The California DMV does not list cars by paint color. The North Star is used to find the Little Dipper, not the other way around.
This book is an interesting read. It has the same foible of all medical mysteries - straining to put the medical hero (here, Joanna) into a position where she is finding clues and interrogating witnesses, which results in an unwieldy plot. I'm also troubled by the glorification of Neanderthal police tactics.
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