Customer Reviews

The Pain Nurse

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

 

 

With each mystery he writes, Jon Talton moves closer to becoming a cross-over phenomenon with non-mystery readers who appreciate crisp, intelligent writing.

In "The Pain Nurse," he introduces a strong female protagonist -- Cheryl Beth Wilson, the pain nurse at Cincinnati Memorial Hospital -- and her patient "sidekick," Will Borders, who harbors painful secrets from his years as a homicide detective. Borders becomes obsessed with the murder of a doctor at the hospital, where he has just undergone spinal cord surgery.

Their relationship and pursuit of the killer are riveting and sometimes sweet. Even more exciting is the range and creativity that Talton demonstrates in his first novel that's not part of the excellent Mapstone series that established his mystery creds.

At Cincinnati Memorial Hospital, Pain Nurse Specialist Cheryl Beth Wilson finds the corpse of Dr. Christine Lustig in an isolated office. The CPD homicide detectives quickly suspect Cheryl Beth killed the victim because of her affair with the deceased's spouse.

One of Cheryl Beth patients, just out of surgery removing a tumor on his spinal cord, former homicide cop Will Borders feels like he suffers from déjà vu when on his gurney heading back to his room he glimpses the crime scene. It eerily reminds him of the Mount Adams Slasher, who was caught, convicted and executed. Bed-ridden and in severe pain, he is unable to make the cops including his former partner listen to him. Instead Will directs Beth on investigating the crime while someone nearby watches her every move.

THE PAIN NURSE is an excellent refreshing investigative thriller starring a detective stuck in bed and his "legs"; mindful of Jeffrey Deaver's Lincoln Rhymes. The location plays a key part in this thriller as Jon Talton moves from Arizona (the Mapstone mysteries) to an Ohio hospital. Readers will feel empathy pain as Borders' aches are that descriptive; on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being hurting at Mt. Everest levels, he is a 12. However, it is the recuperating patient and his pain nurse who team up as an unlikely investigative duet searching for a killer.

Harriet Klausner

OK, I got this because I used to be a pain doc back in the 80's at UC hospital, and the book brings back memories of the old general hospital structure and of the city of Cincinnati (now that I no longer live there). Unfortunately, it really skimps on the technical aspects and challenges of pain management, and so as a thriller it really fails where other skilled novelist succeed- engrossing you in the story by virtue of the details of a new world/profession/city/setting. So, I enjoyed it but I'm a specific case. Most folks will find it a very average thriller.

Jon Talton is a local (Phoenix) writer. This is outside of his normal Phoenix based crime stories but is a very well written book. I always enjoy his writing.

Talton sets this new series in a Cincinnati hospital and focused on a pain nurse (one charged with pain management) and a recovering police detective. After a rather exciting set up, the novel fails to pay off. Lots of different threads, but none are tied up in a satisfying manner. For example, we learn that the pain nurse and the victim met in a bar earlier on the night of the killing. This is a secret that the nurse keeps from the police and frets will be told; when the circumstances are revealed, I wondered what the big deal was. Why did she feel that she had to keep it quiet?

Approaching (and during) the climatic scene, I was not really engaged. I read the words, but there was no feeling of excitement, danger, or tenseness. Then the book just stopped.

While I don't feel the book was a bad one, it just wasn't very engaging or interesting. It's the reading equivalent of a saltine cracker; it will quench your hunger for a mystery but but there's nothing flavorful or substantial to it. Okay, not great.

Getting away from Mapstone this time and moving his venue from Phoenix to Cincinnati, Talton shows his strong development as a writer. The Pain Nurse is well organized, full of tension and shows an excellent development of characters. Although his earlier novels were fine reads, Talton has vastly improved his talent for suspense in this work. A real page turner for mystery lovers.

This is a slow and painful read with very little plot. The story involves a police detective in the hospital for spinal surgery while a murder is committed in the hospital. Enter pain management nurse Cheryl Beth who knew the murder victim and is accused of the crime.

The story suffers from an improbable plot, too many coincidences, stereotypical characters and an overabundance of inane details. We get to read all about our spinal patient's bodily functions he can and can't do in excruciating detail. I could've used a dose of what Cheryl Beth was handing out to make it through the book.

Jon Talton's THE PAIN NURSE tells of Cheryl Beth Wilson, an elite nurse who finds a doctor murdered in an office - and herself the suspect. When another killing follows, a serial killer case is suspected and it's up to Will Borders, former homicide detective, to team with Cheryl to save the puzzle.

Jon Talton's "The Pain Nurse" focuses on two intensely lonely people, forty-four year old Cheryl Beth Wilson, a pain management nurse in Cincinnati Memorial Hospital, and former homicide detective Will Borders. Will is slowly recuperating from surgery to remove a benign spinal cord tumor, but he is not yet mobile and he hurts a great deal. His pain is "a creature living inside him, pinned up in the fragile pharmaceutical cage." Will left homicide for a job in Internal Investigations, a move that did not endear him to his fellow cops. When Cheryl comes upon the mutilated corpse of her former colleague, Dr. Christine Lustig, she and Will team up to find the perpetrator of this vicious crime. Although he no longer has the authority to investigate murders, Will does not hesitate to express his opinion: Lustig was the victim of a serial killer whom he and Dodds had encountered before. Since Dodds doesn't like to be told how to do his job, he angrily rejects Will's theories.

Talton offers an engrossing look at the bureaucracy, political infighting, and stressful atmosphere of a modern hospital. Will's struggle to adjust to rehab and relearn basic living skills is inspiring and touching, while Cheryl Beth is the type of person we wish every nurse would be--an advocate for her patients. She believes that people suffering from intense pain often receive insufficient or incorrect medication, and she refuses to allow those in her care to suffer needlessly.

The weakest aspect of the book is the poorly developed and illogical plot. It makes no sense that Will, a man who can barely take care of his own needs, would wheel himself around the hospital trying to work a case. He and Cheryl Beth may gel as a romantic duo, but Sherlock Holmes and Watson they are not. In addition, Talton allows one too many melodramatic elements to taint his story, especially those involving Cheryl Beth's womanizing ex-boyfriend, Dr. Gary Nagle, and a mentally ill man named Lenny who may know more about Lustig's death than he can clearly communicate. The dialogue is often stilted, if not silly, and the conclusion is way over the top. When the subject is medicine, "The Pain Nurse" is right on the mark, but as a murder mystery, it misses by a wide margin.