Customer Reviews

Lie Still: A Novel of Suspense

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

See storyline above.

Before you even start to read the book you know the protagonist loses his job, has an affair, and you know Henry collapses. This takes away some of the fun of reading, unpredictability. ( If you don't read the book flap you'll be in for more surprises). That being said, I still liked it.
A sharply written medical thriller which also brings up some interesting ethical issues. Throughout the novel you'll be treated to some of the authors own medical stories. A good read.

Recommended.

As a physician I enjoy medical thrillers and this one is tops in all areas - and particularly accurate in descriptions, relationships of people in the field. I especially enjoyed the "gossip" aspects of the profession described as only one who has been-there-done-that can do.

Prognosis? A best seller for sure.

The author will survive and live a full and productive life - hopefully with more great novels to come.

Could not put it down - a great read. Chilling and twisting. It will hold you from start to finish.

There is a regular article in Discover magazine that I look forward to. It is typically written by a series of ER doctors, and focuses on cases that pose a mystery, either diagnostic or regarding the origin of an injury or illness. The mystery is nearly always solved in some imaginative way, and it makes for fascinating reading.
This novel is like the elongated version of five year's worth of Discover magazines' stories, all surrounding a pretty ingenious mystery/thriller. It's not upbeat, by any means, and there aren't a lot of happy endings, but trust me when I say that it'll be hard to put down. The writing style is engaging and well thought out, and the main character, though flawed, is likeable and worth rooting for. Those of you who like to read fiction for entertainment, but appreciate learning some things along the way, will be right at home here, as the author makes the technical side of medicine pretty palatable for the layman. Highly recommended.

Dr. Farris has hit a home run with this debut novel. As a physician, I can relate to the ethical conflicts presented. I can't wait for his next novel.

Great book Dr. Farris. All I can say is buy this book and read it today. Best medical thriller of the year. Smart, real, and not your every day cookie cutter medical thriller. Robin Cook could learn a few things from reading this great novel. Money well spent. Thanks Dr. Farris.

David Farris has written one of the the best medical thrillers ever! The relativity to today's ethical and moral dilemmas in medical practice makes one ache for all physicians. Farris forcefully defends a doctor's responsibilities to patients first, and touches on most contemporary arguments dealing with questions of life. We are led to think - this is the highest praise for any author, and Farris accomplishes this in beautifully constructed prose which marks him as a writer first and foremost. But, I'd be proud to have him as my doctor.

In Glory, Arizona Dr. Malcolm Ishmail works the local hospital's emergency room, a far cry from his days in Phoenix. He ponders how far he could fall due to ethically reporting the failures of his lover neurosurgeon Mimi Lyle only he was asked to leave town. He has to end his musing because his thirteen years old asthmatic patient Henry Rojelio turns blue and soon becomes comatose. Malcolm has no idea what happened only that he must leave town again.

Over the next seven years later, Malcolm works where he can find employment as a traveling "itinerant physician". Mostly he performs medical work in tiny Nebraska towns. As he has done since Phoenix he reflects back to Mimi, though an incompetent, she sat at the acme of her profession as a superstar. Ultimately, he wonders if Mimi is at the heart of his spiral downward or is he just paranoid. He knows first hand how vengeful she can be, but that was then in Arizona and this is now in Nebraska. Malcolm knows he can never go home though there is one person he would like to see smile.

LIE STILL is an exciting medical thriller with a tremendous twist of an ending. Malcolm has learned the hard way that often politics supersedes ethics as no good deed goes unpunished. He a superb protagonist as he wallows in disappointment as to what happened to his career when he challenged those with the gold like Professor Mimi "voodoo" Lyle. David Farris provides a terse story with no padding as even profanity comes across apropos.

Harriet Klausner

As a busy mom, I have admitted to not finishing books ... but I couldn't put yours down! Loved the book - was the first book to finish in four years!! I especially love the medical stories which I understand are true stories from your past. Please let me know as soon as your next book is available!!!

Becoming an anesthesiologist may not be the easiest way to prepare for writing a medical novel, but you can't beat it for enhancing your verisimilitude. This novel takes off a little slowly, but once you get into it, the medical know-how and experience the author brings to the story make it totally engrossing. Besides satisfying the medical wonks among us, the book works as a mystery. In fact, I was not sure just how our hero's problems were being choreographed until near the end of the book - that is, when the author told me.

The protagonist wasn't very likeable; the plot extremely unbelievable, and the graphic sex overdone. I did enjoy the medical parts...someone in an earlier review refrerred to the Vital Signs column in Discover & this part of the book was fascinating. Don't bother buying it; check out at the library/