Customer Reviews

Side Effects

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

 

 

Yes - his books seem to following the typical formula/recipe for medical mystery thriller - BUT, each of the eight paperbacks of his books I finished in record time and couldn't get enough of them! After reading the first one "Silent Treatment" I ordered the other seven to read too! Yes, I too am fairly good at guessing the next "thing" that will occur in mystery books that I read - but I am pretty good at doing so with mystery movies and TV series too - so this is nothing new to me. I have to say that I have also passed on his books to friends and family to read and they are just as captivated by his writing ability and plots as I have been! They are a good, exciting, fast read and if that is what you are after you won't be disappointed - give his books a shot - I certainly did - and I'm not in the least bit disappointed that I did.

Dr. Kate Bennett, a rising-star pathologist at Metropolitan Hospital of Boston, is investigating the unexplained deaths of two women. Her investigation leads her to suspect that someone is intentionally administering untested medication at the Omnicenter, the hospital's health facility for women. With automated drug-dispensing, the Omnicenter system becomes suspect, as does the major pharmaceutical company that provides the standard medications for this system. With powerful enemies and few friends, Dr. Bennett finds her successful life suddenly subject to a series of reverses, engineered by the now-threatened corrupt enterprise. To complicate matters, the illegal drug testing plan is itself infiltrated by a renegade scientist with his own plans for personal glory.

Perhaps with less action than previous novels such as Natural Causes and Silent Treatment, Dr. Michael Palmer has compensated in Side Effects with a careening plot that races towards conclusion without a clear resolution in sight until the last moment. A frightening and plausible thesis, Side Effects provides the reader with insight into our changing vulnerability as trends in medical care also change.

I am a complete medical thriller junkie. I hardly ever read the more "mainstream" fiction/thrillers that are written, but I will always read a medical thriller. Michael Palmer's Side Effects does not disappoint. This is, in fact, the first novel I've read by Palmer, and I will definitely take the opportunity to do so again.

The plot was really interesting, I think the characters were well-developed and real, and the "action" scenes were exciting. Palmer can take real life and make it that much more interesting by throwing in controversy and conflict. The relationship between Kate and her husband was a real relationship, and I was glad to see her husband fight so much in the end to save Kate's life and career.

If you're into medical thrillers, then I would recommend this book for sure.

After reading my first Palmer book I was hooked. I've been addicted ever since. My paperback goes everywhere I do. Thanks Michael Palmer! Don't ever stop!

Dr Kate Bennett's future looks very bright indeed. She's a talented pathologist at the Metropolitan Hospital of Boston and is the likely successor to the chief of the department. Her loving husband is a political star and stands a strong chance of winning a seat in the US Congress. But as she investigates the untimely death of two women and faces the possible death of her best friend from an undiagnosed bleeding disorder, she finds herself facing the power of a giant multi-national pharmaceutical company. Her husband's political hopes for Congress begin to disintegrate as Bennett's actions label her as a loose cannon maverick with possible mental instabilities.

From the time that Robin Cook's "Coma" exploded into the literary world, I have loved medical thrillers. But, as the genre matures and ages, there are some plots that have been positively beaten to death. This is one of them - heroic brilliant doctor juggles a personal life with professional life and squares off against the big mean multi-national pharmaceutical company whose CEO thinks only of wealth, personal gain or perhaps even more (in this case, think international power that may well extend into political arenas)! It's well enough written to ensure that any reader will finish the book but at the halfway point my eyelids were drooping and my eyes were rolling at the lack of originality in the entire story.

The climax and the epilogue, on the other hand, were an entirely different kettle of fish! Michael Palmer's story of the evolution of Kate Bennett's marriage and the growth of her and her husband, Jared Samuels, as loving supportive team-mates in a most difficult partnership was heartwarming, uplifting, gripping, exciting and most pleasing - indeed, quite capable of producing that proverbial lump in the throat. The epilogue, instead of winding the plot up, actually hangs it up with a tantalizing note of incompleteness that is probably realistically representative of the true state of the world in which we live.

But, too little too late could only convert a two-star yawner into a three star enjoyable representative of the medical thriller genre that won't have much staying power in the memory. If you enjoy Michael Palmer, by all means read it for completeness. Recommended but only just barely.

Paul Weiss

By about two-thirds of the way into this book, it fell into the usual medical thriller cliches we've all read a hundred times, not to mention the main character of the book is followed around for most of it being told her worth in her marriage is amount to squeezing out a baby for her spineless husband.

This isn't quite as bad as some of Robin Cook's stinkers, but overall it just wasn't very good.

I have read all o;f Michael Palmer's books to date. I always look forward to his next work. I find him to be an excellent author who will give us much more to be enthrolled with.

We thought Michael Palmer's medical thriller ("The Sisterhood") was quite good, especially for a first novel; this one, his second outing, just might be great! An interesting prologue from Nazi Germany sets the stage for a story about illegal (and of course, unethical) testing of unapproved drugs on unaware human subjects. Incredible suspense and tension are generated through a number of faceted story lines:

- Leading lady Dr. Kate Bennett, a hospital pathologist, fights the establishment at every turn to uncover the truth;

- The wealthy patrician father of Kate's husband is ready to interfere in their lives and marriage at every turn for the political gain of his son;

- Women are dieing of uncontrolled bleeding with mysterious uterine problems almost new to medicine found in the autopsies;

- A greedy drug firm is in cahoots with a women's medical center to dispense secret drug tests;

- Unscrupulous hospital management is ready to lie, cheat, and murder to perpetuate the conspiracy.

A gripping story and complex plot is one thing, but Palmer's descriptive writing style and careful revealing of characters and situations really fleshes out this very believable tale. For once, the words "terrifying" and "vivid" on the paperback cover seem justified. We enjoyed this as one of our best reads of the summer -- highly recommend!

This book was Michael Palmer's worst. The book begins in Germany during WWII with Nazi doctors conducting experiments on humans. Then, forty years later the story continues. Usually his books are full of suspense and drama. This book lacked both. I kept reading it in hopes that it would get better. Unfortunately, it didn't. I don't recommend this book to anyone.