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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Good example of why most men shouldn't even try..., December 31, 2001
This review is from: Final Diagnosis (Paperback)
...to write from a woman's perspective. Erin's character is written in the third person, but she is the central figure, and the reader views most events through her eyes. Her behavior, clothing choices, career, relationship with the studly young surgeon, and most of all her conversations with her best friend all resound with the dull clunk of inauthenticity. (sample: Erin to her hospitalized best friend Claire "you're a good person. Bad things don't happen to good people." um,HUH?!) Aside from that howler, most of their conversation is clearly intended to do nothing but deliver as much background information to the reader as possible in three pages. This "high-powered" (already, at the age of 30, after spending years as a nurse) tube-top&sparkly-bustier-wearing RN/reporter is fortunate enough to apparently have an unlimited expense account and ludicrously long story deadlines. As I read, I found myself thinking that the author's notion of how a woman in her situation might behave could be described as the "medical suspense" version of how women behave in porn videos; i.e., as a woman, I just laugh, knowing that it is nothing but an adolescent male fantasy. This might be forgivable if the book were indeed suspenseful, but alas, it is not. I'm still not even sure what the whole medical cover-up was about. And rather than making our spines tingle with real tension, the author informs us that Erin's spine is tingling, which I guess is our clue to be nervous too. Note to the publisher, Berkley: GET A PROOFREADER. At first the typos and errors were just unintentionally humorous ("oh, I don't think I could bare it without him" sic) but after the fourth or fifth incorrect use of an apostrophe, my patience wore thin. Speaking of patience, I think from now on Dr. Birken should stick with his day job working with "patients."
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Dr. Birken should stick to his day job, December 30, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Final Diagnosis (Paperback)
I almost wanted to give this book less than one star. The basic plot is okay, but certainly not as thrilling as the blurb on the cover leads one to believe (and who exactly is Don Donaldson?) I'm a nurse and I think some of the medical jargon and details might be a little too technical for the average lay person to understand. Besides that, the author could have eliminated at least 100 pages of boring trivia that have nothing to do with the story line--he describes in excruciating detail exactly what each character is wearing--entire paragraphs are devoted to how someone is lining up pages of a report, or adjusting the air conditioning in the hotel room, or drawing a bath--was this done to increase the length of the book, or are we supposed to be riveted by every action of every character? Dr. Birken means well and certainly this is a nice try, but he could use a new editor, or take another writing course and remember to keep things simple and streamlined so that his readers are not so paralyzed with boredom in his next book that they're struggling to finish it.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A parallel universe Miami, December 27, 2001
This review is from: Final Diagnosis (Paperback)
I was looking forward to Dr. Birken's book since I love mysteries and medical thrillers and as a thirty year resident of Miami, love reading about my home town. I only hope Dr. Birken's medical references are more accurate than his portrayal of Miami. He sets his fictional hospital on Key Biscayne, an island connected by the Rickenbacker Causeway to Miami. He uses the Julia Tuttle and Macarthur Causeways to get to Key Biscayne. Both causeways exist but they connect Miami to Miami Beach, not Key Biscayne. At one point in the book the heroince travels on a causeway bordered by a canal. There is only one of these, the Macarthur. Dr. Birken makes it a 4 lane road with olive trees on the verge by the canal. Actually it's a 6 lane divided highway with concrete barriers blocking the verge. Unless you hit it with extraordinary force and speed, you aren't going in the water like his heroine does. If it was a superior thriller I would forgive Dr. Birken his sloppiness but it's pedestrian and dull, and I'm having a hard time finishing it. Too many good medical thriller writers and so many good mystery writers based in South Florida. Too bad since he is based in Hollywood, FL, just up the road a bit. Dr. Birken needs to research his locales
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