Isolation Ward [Audio Cassette]

Joshua Spanogle (Author), Scott Brick (Narrator)

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Books on Tape (2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1415926867
• ISBN-13: 978-1415926864
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,187,499 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent "first novel" by a promising new talent..., January 13, 2007

By 

Thomas Duff "Duffbert" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Isolation Ward (Mass Market Paperback)

Even though I had packed a fair share of books on my recent roadtrip, my flight back from Orlando to Portland was lacking some mind-candy reading. I visited the airport book store and picked up Isolation Ward by Joshua Spanogle. This is an excellent first novel, and it made the trip back a whole lot shorter...

Dr Nathaniel McCormick works for the Centers For Disease Control, and he's out in Baltimore when a strange virus outbreak occurs. The symptoms look like a cross between a flu and a hemorrhagic fever, and it's got a high mortality rate. Furthermore, it's only appearing in mentally handicapped individuals who reside at group homes. The medical tests are not finding anything currently in the books, but some old-fashioned legwork is showing a web of sexual partners with a single individual at the center. The harder McCormick pushes to question people and test the homes, the more interference he gets from high-powered officials. And when "patient zero" is found murdered, McCormick knows that there's a major cover-up taking place. He just doesn't know what it is or where the virus will show up next. Together with a prior love interest, he turns his sights on a biotech firm associated with the medical college he was thrown out of earlier in his life. Far too many of the people he visits end up dead shortly afterwards, and he's not quite sure if he'll discover his answers before they get to him also...

Generally speaking, I cut new authors a little slack when it comes to their first published work. Writing a mainstream novel is not easy, and getting the pacing down usually comes with time. In this case, Spanogle cut to the head of the class. The depiction of a new virus threat seemed very realistic, as well as the constant questioning as to whether this was a bio-terrorist threat or just a new bug. It also showed that there are no easy answers when it comes to the detective work, and sometimes luck plays a more important role than skill. Just about the time you think you know where his story is going, there's a twist that takes you off in another direction. And although you think there are people in the story you can trust, each one has just a slight edge to them that makes you wonder if there's something that you don't yet know...

A very good, entertaining read, and an excellent first effort... Spanogle will be an author I keep on my "must read" list...

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A new Cook????, February 28, 2006

By 

Robert Busko (North Carolina) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Isolation Ward (Hardcover)

Joshua Spanogle's Isolation Ward is a gripping and suspenseful read. The plot is fairly loose throughout the book but does eventually come together. Dr. Nathaniel McCormick (Nate) is an in your face doctor that works for the Centers for Disease Control. The guy doesn't know how to back down, even from his boss and will use a caged rat if necessary (read the book, it'll make sense) to defend himself. Though I like Nate, I'm not sure he's realistic.

As I read Isolation Ward, I kept drawing comparisons with the other doctor turned bestselling author, Robin Cook. This is unfair on my part, but I remember reading Cook's first bestseller Coma way back when and the comparison is natural enough. Spanogle is talented, and in time may become as good an author as Cook. Certainly, Isolation Ward is a good start.

Good plot, tight dialog, and interesting characters make Isolation Ward a good read.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating and memorable debut novel, March 7, 2006

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Isolation Ward (Hardcover)

Joshua Spanogle is currently a student at Stanford Medical School, but he has already acquired quite a bit of backstory. A Yale graduate, Spanogle has also served as a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics. As if medical school wasn't time-consuming enough, Spanogle has written a medical thriller, ISOLATION WARD, that infuses elements of medical acumen and detective work to result in one of the more memorable books of recent note in any genre.

Spanogle's creation is Dr. Nathaniel McCormick, an officer of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, which in turn is a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The title "officer" connotes hierarchy and bureaucracy, and McCormick does not play well with others. Additionally, his personality is closer to that of Gregory House than Marcus Welby. These traits do not mesh well with his supervisors in the CDC, the hospitals he visits, law enforcement...well, you get the idea. This guy has an authority problem. And what makes it additionally tough for his superiors is that McCormick, more often than not, is right.

When a number of people begin showing up at a Baltimore Hospital emergency room with extremely nasty symptoms, McCormick --- loose cannon that he is --- goes rolling across the deck and over a number of toes. It doesn't take long to figure out that the patients are all residents of group homes. McCormick himself notes that he doesn't like being stuck in examining rooms --- an interesting attitude for a physician --- and is soon out in the streets and neighborhoods of Baltimore, investigating the patients, their employers and their friends, and kicking over rocks in the best manner of Robert B. Parker's Spenser and Raymond Chandler's Marlowe.

When an individual with a link to all the patients is found brutally murdered, McCormick's unauthorized investigation takes him to Northern California, where he not only uncovers the bizarre and frightening etiology of the mystery disease, but is also forced to confront and resolve issues from his own past that have a bearing on his present.

Spanogle has created a unique character here; McCormick is slightly irritating yet ultimately likable, and there is no question that he is an irresistible force attracted toward the truth. Considering that medical research and detective work are quite similar, it is somewhat surprising that characters such as McCormick are not more common in fiction. Spanogle, with McCormick and ISOLATION WARD, has raised the bar for future creators his first time out. Recommended.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub