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The Patient [Hardcover]

Michael Palmer (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)


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Book Description

April 4, 2000
With one nerve-shattering New York Times bestseller after another, Michael Palmer has demonstrated his extraordinary ability to create medical thrillers that are at once relentlessly suspenseful and chillingly realistic. And now the former ER physician returns with the stunning and explosive tale of a gifted neurosurgeon drawn into a world of escalating danger and violence, all because of...The Patient.

Dr. Jessie Copeland is exactly where she wants to be: A respected neurosurgeon at Eastern Mass Medical Center, she spends her days waging life-and-death battles in the OR and her spare time holed up in a lab, spearheading the development of a tiny robot that could revolutionize brain surgery.

ARTIE--Assisted Robotic Tissue Incision and Extraction--is an exciting fusion of biomechanics and radiology that, when perfected, will be able to excise tumors now considered inoperable. But it could be months before ARTIE is ready for use on human beings...or so Jessie thinks, until her ambitious department head jumps the gun and uses the robot in a high-profile case that nets immediate worldwide attention.

Suddenly the hospital is swarming with media, vying for a multimillion-dollar grant, and fielding calls from patients desperate for this lifesaving technology. But what no one at the medical center realizes is that the publicity has also reached one of the most malevolent men on earth.

Claude Malloche is brilliant, secretive, remorseless, and without regard for human life--a mercenary willing to bring down a world leader or a jetliner filled with people if the price is right. He is also ill with a life-threatening brain tumor that is exactly the sort ARTIE was invented to treat. Now Malloche must come into the open, and he has set his sights on the hospital that has burst to the forefront of neurosurgery: Eastern Mass Medical Center.

For those caught on the neurosurgical floor, the nightmare has just begun...and no one is more aware of the stakes than Jessie Copeland. In brain surgery there are no guarantees. But that's exactly what Claude Malloche demands, leaving Jessie to face the most harrowing case of her life. Disaster is just a cut away. And the price of failure may be thousands of lives....

Heart-poundingly scary and immensely entertaining, The Patient is riveting, unpredictable, page-turning suspense. It is terror to which no one is immune.


Claude Malloche is a master assassin, more rumor than man, for whom murder is an art.  No one can identify his face.  Now Malloche has a deadly brain tumor, and he intends to have the best neurosurgeon in the world operate on it.

To ensure Jessie's cooperation, Malloche has devised a plan of intimidation that puts at risk her life and the lives of hundreds of innocent people.  Neurosurgery requires nerves of steel, but in coming up with a scheme to fulfill her oath as a doctor yet thwart a diabolical killer, Jessie will be performing the most complex surgery of her career--on a knife-edge of terror.

With every book he writes, Michael Palmer raises the standard of the medical thriller, writing "wrenchingly scary,"* "chillingly sinister"** novels packed with the authenticity that his years as an ER physician provide.  THE PATIENT  proves he is the master of scalpel-sharp suspense. -->

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Patient, Michael Palmer's ninth medical suspense novel, is a fast-paced beat-the-clock thriller. Someone is killing off the world's most gifted neurosurgeons, and Alex Bishop, a renegade CIA agent, thinks he knows who it is. Bishop is out to settle his score with Claude Malloche, an international assassin responsible for the death of Bishop's brother. When he learns that Malloche is afflicted with an inoperable brain tumor, Bishop understands why the murdered neurosurgeons died, and where Malloche will strike next. Meanwhile, Jessie Copeland, an MIT-trained mechanical engineer and neurosurgeon, is working to perfect a robotic device that will revolutionize brain surgery.

One of the patients awaiting surgery at Boston's Eastern Massachusetts Medical Center is Malloche--but which one? No one has ever been able to identify the assassin, and Jessie is hardly well known enough to attract his notice. But ARTIE, the robotic device, is--and Malloche will stop at nothing to ensure that it's used to save his own life. He threatens to release a deadly nerve toxin on thousands of innocent people, and Jessie is forced to save him at the cost of her own safety.

Notable for his swift pacing, well-drawn minor as well as major characters, and medical expertise, Palmer delivers the goods with this heart-stopping read. -- Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

Palmer's ninth medical thriller (after Miracle Cure) probably isn't the book to be reading when you've got a slight headache. Early on, a star Olympic gymnast feels a small pain in her skull, and soon she's having a brain tumor zapped by a flashy new surgical robot. The author, who was a full-time practitioner of internal and emergency medicine for 20 years, tells readers so much about the actual work of brain surgery that some might decide to skip over a few of the more agonizing moments, such as the frenzied operation on a young boy with a bullet wound. Yet these bloody and painful details put readers firmly inside the skin of Dr. Jessie Copeland, a neurosurgeon in her 40s with a combined undergraduate degree in biology and mechanical engineering. Now working under egomaniacal chief surgeon Carl Gilbride at a top Boston hospital, Jessie gets to try out ARTIE (Assisted Robotic Tissue Incision and Extraction) on cadavers, while Gilbride coaxes foundations to cough up millions for the revolutionary new procedure. Attracted by the media attention generated by ARTIE's use (too early, Jessie thinks) on the gymnast, shadowy terrorist Claude Malloche, known as "the Mist," who also has a brain tumor, comes to the hospital for treatmentAand winds up holding patients and staff hostage in case the operation fails. It's finally up to Jessie and a rogue CIA agent to keep everyone healthy. This graft between medical and terrorist thriller has some rough edges, but the operation is a success. Agent, Jane Rotrosen Agency.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 298 pages
  • Publisher: Bantam (April 4, 2000)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0553109839
  • ISBN-13: 978-0553109832
  • Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.7 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #724,079 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Palmer, is the author of sixteen novels of medical and political suspense, all international bestsellers. His 17th medical and political thriller, OATH OF OFFICE is now available. In addition to writing, Palmer is an associate director of the Massachusetts Medical Society Physician Health Services, devoted to helping physicians troubled by mental illness, physical illness, behavioral issues, and chemical dependency. He lives in eastern Massachusetts.


 

Customer Reviews

68 Reviews
5 star:
 (32)
4 star:
 (26)
3 star:
 (5)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (68 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Palmer always leaves you wanting more, April 6, 2000
This review is from: The Patient (Hardcover)
Eastern Massachusetts Medical Center (EMMC) neurosurgeon Jessie Copeland tests the use of assisted robotic tissue incision and extraction on corpses. However, in spite of the media push of her odious boss, Jessie feels ARTIE is not quite ready for prime time use to remove brain tumors in humans. Still, Jessie applies ARTIE on a renowned gymnast.

For years, CIA agent Alex Bishop has tried to capture the elusive soulless mercenary Claude Maloche without any success. However, Alex feels he is closing in on his enemy when he learns Claude suffers from a brain tumor with the trail leading to EMMC and Jessie. To ensure his full recovery and safety, Claude threatens to kill thousands if Jessie errs. She and Alex know this amoral assassin is more than capable of carrying out what he threatens even if he dies on the operating table.

THE PATIENT is a typical Michael Palmer medical-terrorist thriller that leaves readers wondering how so much action and excitement can be packed into one story line. The plot is dynamic as Mr. Palmer blends modern medical technology with the unmerciful word of cold-blooded mercenaries. Jessie is a fine character struggling to keep her Oath and morals above board even as individuals surround her from both sides of the law who would corrupt her for their use. A Mr. Palmer tale should carry a warning label that his books increase adrenaline and the pulse rate to dangerous levels because they are so excitingly good.

Harriet Klausner

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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An Outstanding Medical Thriller, September 6, 2000
This review is from: The Patient (Audio Cassette)
This electrifying medical thriller is brilliantly written and doesn't let up until the final page. Michael Palmer combines cutting-edge medical technology with international intrigue and throws in a side order of blind ambition to create a fascinating and suspense filled tale.

This is probably the best medical thriller I've ever read. The technology was plausible and the scientific explanations seemed well informed. The characters are interesting and well developed. Dr. Carl Gilbride's insatiable egomania as head of the Eastern Mass Medical Center puts patients at risk by pushing the use of the ARTIE technology before it is ready. His imprudence and haughtiness makes it that much easier to love Dr. Jesse Copeland, his dedicated protégée who is far more accomplished as a brain surgeon than her boss is. International terrorist Claude Malloche and his wife are ruthless and wicked beyond description; heightening the uncertainty as to the mayhem they will wreak to further their desperate ends.

The plot twists, turns and races at breakneck speed against an incessantly ticking clock providing a white-knuckle ride and unbearable suspense. I rate this book a 10/10. It has been a long time since I have been so engrossed in a story. Don't plan to get much sleep until you finish it.

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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Palmer Has His Finger On the Pulse of Terror, April 5, 2000
By 
Beverly Tricco (Randolph, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Patient (Hardcover)
I just read, in the New York Times, that doctors can do heart surgery with little tiny robots. My glow about that piece of good news lasted only hours. The next thing I read was The Patient, the newest release by Michael Palmer, about a vicious terrorist, demanding brain surgery which can only be done by, you guessed it, little tiny robots. I was up all night. Jessie Copeland, a woman nuerosurgeon, is a well rounded, likable character and a terrific hero. Claude Malloch and his band are chilling and merciless. Their contest of wills will keep your heart racing from beginning to end. Dr. Palmer knows what's going on in the world. He knows what scares us. And he knows how to deliver a thriller with great characters, great pacing, and a great climax. When's the movie?
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Inside This Book (learn more)
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First Sentence:
THEY WERE NEARLY THREE HOURS INTO the operation and not one cell of the cancer had yet been removed. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Surgical Seven, Rolf Hermann, Carl Gilbride, Claude Malloche, Eastman Tolliver, Alex Bishop, Marci Sheprow, Tamika Bing, Sara Devereau, Eastern Mass Medical, Count Hermann, Orlis Hermann, Arlette Malloche, Mark Naehring, Michelle Booker, Richard Marcus, Government Center, Hans Pfeffer, Dave Scolari, Lisa Brandon, Jessie Copeland, Skip Porter, Quincy Market, Surgical Tower, Ben Rasheed
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