Heat Shock [Hardcover]

Robert Greer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 28, 2003

The author of the ac-claimed CJFloyd series returns to the world he knows best-high stakes medical research-in this riveting new thriller ripped from today's headlines. Dr. Carmen Nguyen, a Colorado emergency room doctor, finds herself unwittingly drawn into the problems of a patient. Luke Redstoke, a former Uranium miner, is dying of cancer but is more worried about his prized gamecocks. Someone has been sneaking onto his property and trying to steal his precious birds. Now he has no way to protect them. Carmen agrees to check on the birds if only to humor Redstone-but she soon realizes the birds are genuinely valuable. A former medical researcher, Carmen learns that the birds raised on uranium rich soil hold secrets about strength, power, and chromosome changes. Determined to honor her promise to the dying man, she enlists a new friend and former patient to help protect the birds. Very little can stop the motorcycle-riding, Vietnam-born survivor, but a small army of ruthless killers hired by a businessman who can make a fortune from the birds' secrets are determined to try.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Greer, author of the popular CJ Floyd mystery series (Limited Time; The Devil's Backbone), ushers in two compelling new protagonists in this fast-paced tale of medical research gone awry. Dr. Carmen Nguyen is a half-black, half-Vietnamese emergency room physician at a hospital in the Colorado desert; her patient-turned-lover, Walter Rios, is a rugged river-rafter recovering from a near-fatal fishing accident. Together, they come to the assistance of Luke Redstone, an ornery cockfighter dying of a rare form of leukemia caused by mining yellow-cake uranium in his younger days. While Redstone receives treatment in the hospital, someone steals his prized fighting cocks, known for their unusual vigor and bloodthirstiness. Nguyen and Rios soon discover that an unscrupulous Denver biotech executive, Jack Kimbrough, has taken an abnormal interest in Redstone's birds and possesses inside knowledge of how they dominated the fighting circuit. (A secondary character in the CJ Floyd series, the Denver bail bondsman's assistant, Flora Jean, is on the case, too.) With Nguyen's medical expertise and Rio's investigative wile, the pair find that Kimbrough may have come up with a way to replicate the physical invincibility of Redstone's cocks in human beings. It's a discovery that could be worth billions-and could lead to murder. Greer effectively evokes the Western setting with his clean, uncluttered prose and introduces a winning crime-fighting duo.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Most medical thrillers deliver their chills in a cold laboratory atmosphere. Greer, a practicing surgical pathologist and research scientist, yanks the chain of the genre by setting most of his shocks in the scruffy outreaches of the Colorado High Plains. Readers are pulled into the back roads of illegal cockfighting before they realize they've embarked on an adventure yarn heavily laced with science fiction; the result is satisfyingly unnerving. Greer excels at both plot and characterization. His trio of amateur sleuths here fairly leap off the page in their well-limned humanity. They include a female emergency room doctor, who has faced a lifetime of ostracism because of being "my den," half-black, half-Vietnamese; an old man dying of cancer, thanks to years in the mines; and a whitewater river rafter obsessed with the death of a 10-year-old boy. The old man's superstar game cocks--fighting cocks that shatter the competition--are sought after by agents for a research science lab, who use stealth, wealth, and murder to get what they want. The scientists are convinced that the game cocks have a radical protective trait that could lead to a race of "invincibles." The ER doctor, against her rules of conduct, gets pulled into the old man's life and promises to look after his birds. This triggers a chain of assaults and murders that result in the three broken people investigating the lab themselves. Reading Greer is like being hooked up to an I.V. that steadily drips suspense. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Mysterious Press (October 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892967536
• ISBN-13: 978-0892967537
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,533,090 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What do cockfights have to do with it?, January 31, 2004

By 

The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers (RAWSISTAZ.com and BlackBookReviews.net) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heat Shock (Hardcover)

A half black, half Vietnamese emergency room doctor, Carmen Nguyen, who knows better, gets involved in the affairs of a dying patient, Luke Redstone. Luke, who is suffering from leukemia and has only a short time to live, begs her to go check on his gamecocks that he keeps behind his cabin. When she rides her motorcycle to his house in the woods, she is shot at before she gets close enough to see how the cocks are faring.

Another patient, Walter Rios, who is recovering from a rough tumble over a rocky cliff, also becomes entangled in the gamecock affair. Even though Redstone's gamecocks are superior birds that win most of their matches, Rios and Carmen feel there is something else about the birds that make others wish to steal and even kill if necessary to obtain the cocks. Their path crosses that of a ruthless businessman, a cadre of killers, several scientists and a group of Navajos who have somehow become involved.

Much to the disgust of Nguyen's Vietnamese aunt who is not fond of American men, a romance begins to build between Rios, a guilt-ridden white water rafting guide and Nguyen. Nguyen is torn between pleasing her aunt and her love for Rios. There is plenty of background on Carmen's Vietnam beginnings and the reasons for Walter's guilt. The mystery plays out in the stunning scenery of the Grand Mesa and over the contaminated grounds of former uranium mines in western Colorado.

Robert Greer has written a fascinating mystery that includes science, medicine, murder and romance. It is a wonderful book that holds your attention to the last page.

Reviewed by alice Holman
of the RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Loser, January 20, 2004

By 

richard nugent (Wilmette, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heat Shock (Hardcover)

Preposterous dialog and mangled cliches ("tree-lined aspens", "dot.com pharmaceutical start-ups") distract from an interesting plot.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Terrific Thriller, November 1, 2003

By 

Maggie Mae (Reno, Nevada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heat Shock (Hardcover)

Doctor Carmen Nguyen is taking time off from genetic research and working in a Colorado emergency room. An ex-uranium miner who trains cockfighting birds comes to the ER with an unusual form of leukemia due to mining yellow-cake uranium when he was younger. She soon discovers that the miner's birds are stronger than they should be and that Denver biotech executive, Jack Kimbrough has taken an unusual interest in the fighting birds.

There is just the right blend of fascinating characters and intriguing plot in this action filled thriller to make this a book you won't soon forget.