The Somers Treatment (Severn House Large Print) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Gillian Bradshaw (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2006 | Series: Severn House Large Print

Life-enhancing medical breakthrough or dangerous arrogance?
Dr Janet Morley has brought Madhab, a young, deaf Nepalese boy, back to England in the hope that she can find the medical aid he needs to hear and communicate. Eminent neurosurgeon David Somers begins the unprecedented treatment. When Janet's house is burgled and David Somers and his assistant are found murdered, industrial espionage is blamed, but the real truth is far more worrying . . .

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gillian Bradshaw's father, an American Associated Press newsman, met her mother, a confidential secretary for the British embassy, in Rio de Janeiro. She was born in Washington DC in 1956, the second of four children. They didn't move around quite as much as one might expect after such a beginning: Washington was followed merely by Santiago, Chile, and two locations in Michigan. Gillian attended the University of Michigan, where she earned her BA in English and another in Classical Greek, and won the Hopwood Prize for fiction with her first novel, "Hawk of May," She went on to get another degree at Newnham College, Cambridge University, England in Greek and Latin literature, and she sold her first novel while preparing for exams.
She decided to stay in Cambridge another year to write another novel and think about what to do for a Real Job. However, while there, she discovered she could live on her income as a novelist and also met her husband, who was completing his doctorate in physics. Between books and children she never did get a Real Job, and she's been writing novels ever since.
She and her husband now live in Coventry. They have four children and a dog.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 333 pages
• Publisher: Severn House Publishers (January 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0727874861
• ISBN-13: 978-0727874863
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,488,335 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born 1956 in Arlington, Virginia (i.e., Washington DC); grew up there, in Santiago, Chile, and in East Lansing and Mount Pleasant Michigan; educated University of Michigan (Classics and English) and Newnham College, Cambridge (Classics). I published my first novel while I was supposed to be revising for my final exams; the exams suffered, but I still managed a 2.1. I decided to take another year in Cambridge to work on the next novel, and Met a Man, like many a woman before and since. We got married in Paris, where he had a post-doc position and I had discovered an urgent need to learn French. He continued research and teaching, first in Santa Barbara, then back in Cambridge, and finally at the University of Warwick; I continued writing. A lot of my work has used my background in classical Greek and Latin, but I've occasionally branched out into the high middle ages, contemporary, and sci-fi. We have four kids, now grown up, and so far one grandchild.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Didn't want it to end, November 8, 2003

By 

Maddely "So many books, so little time" (Marietta, GA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Somers Treatment (Hardcover)

This is the second Bradshaw novel that I've read, the first one being Wolf Hunt, and I really liked that one too. The Somers Treatment is so different from Wolf Hunt, but in both, Bradshaw does a great job at character development.

The Somers Treatment is about Dr. Janet Morly, who adopts a deaf orphan boy from Nepal named Madhab. She takes him home to Britain in hopes to have his impaired hearing corrected and to learn language and get an education. They get help from an old med school acquaintance, David Somers, who happens to be a genius as well as unethical, pompous, and arrogant. Madhab's treatment is experimental, and along the way Janet learns that it is being funded by the Ministry of Defense (MoD). Things get more interesting when an employee of the MoD, Michael Shahid, steps into the picture to make sure all the risks have been explained to Madhab and that no one is taking advantage of him. From there the story gets more involved with murder, espionage, romance and science too. It was a good book. I finished it in only a couple days.

I loved the way Bradshaw developed the characters and the entire story. They were all believable and smart. I felt empathy for the characters and sorry for Madhab too, but I didn't pity him; I liked all the main characters and wanted the book to go on longer. I'm looking forward to reading another novel by Gillian Bradshaw.