Customer Reviews

MADicine

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

That's the World Advance Response Taskforce led by Alban Bane, a Scot who can be more than a wart on the backside of people who get in his way. He's not entirely sure why he's been called to California to save the world yet again, but he gets a taste of the virus firsthand when the pilot of his transcontinental plane goes nuts and nearly kills everyone on Flight 411.

Enter, Dr. Ada Kenner, Harvard trained CDC doc who first identified the plague and named it MADS because the primary symptoms were dementia, sociopathy, and violent psychotic breaks. She's a bit mad herself because no one was willing to listen to her until Bane stepped in.

These two, along with help from Nam Ling, kung fu champion and Panji, a Native American pop star also known as Little Coyote, will lead the forefront in the fight against the deadly virus.

There's a lot to recommend "MADicine." It's not just typical plot driven page turning suspense. Alban Bane and the other supporting cast members are all strong characters with their own beliefs and painful pasts.

In addition, while Armstrong knows how to dish the action, he can also keep you from raising your blood pressure too high with an occasional laugh. His comment, "I plan to sleep. Hopefully, you don't." to an obnoxious pilot had me rolling and that was just within the first few pages.

Finally, the mystery comes in with just the right amount of clues to keep me reading and guessing almost until the last of the book. The imagery here was so vivid, I'm casting the movie in my head while I'm heading off to order Derek Armstrong's first book in this series, The Game.

Rebecca Kyle, June 2008

Having read Armstrong's "The Game" last year, I was looking forward to meeting Alban Bane on the page once again. Who can resist a character who, when asked by a young kid on a plane if he is like James Bond, responds, "Better looking and funnier." This is a thriller with charm, humor and sexy-edge. Armstrong's dialogue is so smooth, you will feel as if you're hearing the characters, rather than merely reading them. Looking for an entertaining summer read? Grab this book.

I just finished reading Madicine, by Derek Armstrong. This story is an exciting blockbuster of a movie-in-the-making. Armstrong's writing style is so visual that I was pulled in to the story and captivated by the characters. I won't spoil it for any one by giving anything away- but there are several twists that will have you covered in goosebumps from head-to-toe. Like his previous novels, The Game and The Last Troubadour (I'm a fan, what can I say?), it's Armstrong's ability to create memorable, relateable characters that make me connect to his writing. This book NEEDS to be a movie. Well, in my mind, at least, it already is.

You gotta love a hero who works for an organization called WART, which is
the evil-fighting World Advance Response Team headed by Alban Bane, a
smart-mouthed Scot who saves the world in his spare time. In this satirical
thriller, Bane tackles a plague that's spreading across the globe causing
people to go into violent, murderous rages. He figures out that the cause
is a virus developed to CURE violence (oops!), but then has the fun job of
stopping it before the world's entire population starts frothing at the
mouth and doing bad things to each other with baseball bats and claw
hammers.

Bane calls on a trio of beautiful assistants, a kung-fu champion, a pop
star, and Ada Kenner, a CDC virologist who serves as the perfect foil for
Bane's acerbic wit. Together they hop the globe as required by all
high-performing international crime fighters, whizzing from L.A. to Europe
to Hong Kong to Africa. Any reader who doesn't catch the 007/Charlie's
Angels/Michael Crichton references suffers from an incomplete education.

It's a spoof, of course, (did I mention the zombies?) but not so
over-the-top outrageous that it gets in its own way. You can certainly
enjoy it as a fast-paced thriller with appealing, memorable characters and a
well-thought-out suspenseful plot, but you'll be missing half the fun if you
don't stop every once in awhile and wallow in the comic dialogue and sly
pokes at the conventions of the genre.

A friend recommended I read Derek Armstrong's MADicine. I hadn't heard of Mr. Armstrong before, but I trusted my friend's opinions on books, particularly where it comes to mysteries and thrillers. I have just finished reading MADicine and have to say it is the most unique mystery I have ever read. In good ways. The novelist doesn't take himself too seriously, and yet is obviously serious about the material he is lampooning. Reading MADicine, which is about a virus that causes normally reliable people to turn MAD, is like going on a roller coaster ride where you're sharing the seat with someone who is constantly poking you in the ribs. You can't help laughing while you're clinging to the edge of your seat. Whereas many mystery series that have the same protagonist often lose their edge, I look forward to reading more stories with Alban Bane and his array of friends.

Ian Fleming was a master entertainer who always gave away the tongue-in-cheek nature of his game with his outrageous, over the top
villains. Armstrong outclasses Fleming and Bond in this sexy thriller
with a villain that's totally impersonal-a virus. This virus,
developed to cure the tendency to violence (an anti-violence virus?)
turns out to have an unintended consequence. It causes otherwise normal,
even well-disposed people to have fits of destructive rage.

What can stop the violence? Who will be the bane of rage epidemic? Well, Alban Bane of course with his trio of beautiful female assistants:(Gentlemen, tell me if this matches any of your fantasies. . .) a kung-fu adept, a luscious Harvard-trained doctor from the Center for Disease Control, and a pop star.
What makes this book so wonderfully entertaining is that the satire
is all at the meta-level. You could read this entirely as a thriller
and never crack a grin. But that would be a waste. This is also an
extremely droll fable on the fate of good intentions and the continuing breakdown of what we used to call civility. I hope the movie doesn't make
a mess of it.

Lynn Hoffman, author of The New Short Course in Wine

Robin Cook, move over! Derek Armstrong has created a smart-mouthed, sarcastic, ego-centric protagonist capable of irritating officials as high-ranking as the President of the United States in this medical thriller. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Alban Bane...
Don't fret...in a world where over the top characters, molded from a child's Play-Dough set, dominate the thriller genre with predictable dialog and self-centered antics, Bane fades to the sidelines admirably without emasculating himself or damaging the plot. In fact, good for you Armstrong...and good for Bane. He doesn't steal the show!! Armstrong has successfully recruited an entourage of three dimensional characters churning toward the same goal...the salvation of mankind...with enough conflict and suspense to keep the reader on the edge of her seat!!
I don't want to say too much. I'll let other reviewers offer spoilers if they desire. What I will say is that character is superior to plot but you can't have one without the other. This book has both...nice job, Derek Armstrong.

Posted on Amazon.ca by Joylene Butler on May 4, 2008:
"Prepare to give up everything to finish this book!, May 4 2008"
By Joylene Nowell Butler (Cluculz Lake, B.C.)
If you were lucky enough to discover Mr. Armstrong's debut novel THE GAME, the story of a murderer stalking a TV reality show, & you've been waiting for the sequel ... prepare to be gratified. MADicine not only delivers on Mr. Armstrong's promise of a great read, his skill at bending suspense, comedy, tenderness, & ever ready tongue-lashing is unparalleled.

THE GAME'S hero, Detective Bane, head of the World Advance Response Team (yep W.A.R.T) is back, more adorable & sarcastic than ever. He & his new partner Dr. Ada Kenner of the Center for Disease Control, are in a mad race to find a virus that leaves otherwise gentle victims explosive with rage.

What makes MADicine worthy is not just that it's a perfect story for the likes of Bruce Willis or Hugh Laurie, (& it's true MADicine will keep you rooted to your seat) it'll tug at your heartstrings. Alban Bane is a charismatic hero, but he's also a widower & a father. His tongue may be deadly, but his convictions are scrupulous. What kept me wanting more were scenes like the one where the plane's in a deadly descent to earth & all Bane's can think of, while he clutches with both hands to the ankle of a dangling mother & her child, is that he's going to die with his daughter hating him.

MADicine is a complete package. What a relief to finally read something gut-wrenching, funny, exciting, & with a tender & satisfying ending. Thank you, Mr. Armstrong!

...because you won't want to put this book down after just one or two chapters. Just like its opening character, Dr. Begley, MADICINE burst out of the gate like a shot and kept roaring down the road nonstop, with me hanging on for dear life. Fortunately, the book lasted longer than Begley. (That's not a spoiler -- all kinds of people kick the bucket before the story's finished, of course.)

Taking the time-honored formulas of classical crime thrillers and adding his own brand of wit and quirky irreverence, Armstrong has given us a brightly-lit, constantly moving tale of intrigue, greed, monstrosity, and evil. With prose that comes alive and some pretty damned unforgettable characters, MADICINE is one of those books I hated finishing. The good news: Considering that this is the second Alban Bane crime novel (the first was The Game), we can reasonably assume there are more in the pipeline. Which suits me just fine -- this was SERIOUS fun!

It didn't sound like a recipe for my favorite novel this year, but I just closed the covers and have to admit it's going to stick with me as one of my top ten of this year. I read Armstrong's historical novel, The Last Troubadour: Song of Montsegurone of my favorites last year, the only reason I ordered MADicine. I'm not big into thrillers. But again, Armstrong's charming mix of satire, comic dialogue, convincing action (and the subtext of "kicking the stuffing out of big corporate America") converted me. I can like thrillers after all. It's not just the comedy, and I don't care as much about this 007 satire, but MADicine really does go beyond taking pokes with a satirical stick. The characters are very well developed, especially Ada Kenner, the CDC virologist who pursues the "rage plague" while dealing with her own demons. The Bane character is always funny, but he's also deeper than he seems at first. The hilarious sarcastic dialogue is a defense mechanism, designed to present him as fearless, hiding a whole world full of soft unmanly emotions. You can see the digs if you watch for them, shots at 007 and Charlie's Angels and Michael Crichton, but you can just as easily read this as a straight-through adventure thriller. There's a spontaneous energy and creativity to Armstrong's clever writing that is hard to resist, and it's as apparent here in this shot at thrillers as it was in his historical novels (which by the way took even weightier shots at The DaVinci Code and the quest for the Holy Grail). I hope there'll be a third Bane novel, but it had better include Ada Kenner. This is a scorcher of a summer read, highly recommended for young adults to adults.