Customer Reviews

Urgent Care (Angels of Mercy)

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

 

 

Nora Halloran is walking into Angels of Mercy Medical Center, to begin her shift as ER charge nurse, when she spies someone dying from an assault in the cemetery across the way. Karen, one of hospital's nurse anesthetists, had been physically assaulted, stabbed multiple times, and left for dead. Karen dies in the emergency room. No clues can be found to identify her attacker and many in the hospital had reason to dislike the woman. But Nora recognizes the attacker's work. Karen's killer is the same man that had kidnapped and physically assaulted Nora two years ago. Though Nora never reported what had happened to her, she can no longer keep quiet.

Lydia Fiore (an ER attending doctor with a major secret of her own), Gina Freeman (an emergency medicine resident with famous parents trying to run her life), Seth Cochran (a surgery resident with a past involving Nora and Karen), and Jerry Boyle (a homicide detective and Gina's fiancé) are but some of the people that join Nora in the struggle to unmask a killer. As the clock ticks, the victim count grows.

***** FIVE STARS! This entire story takes place in less than three full days. The E.R. cases and hospital protocols are extremely realistic. It is crystal clear that the author, C.J. Lyons, knows her crafts (both medical and writer) well. As Lyons weaves her web of suspense and intrigue, she manages to convey to the reader the hectic pace and emotionally draining times in which those working within the medical professions face daily. A real eye opener! *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Intriguing way to follow-up on characters introduced in earlier books of the series.

New insights into each character, but focus on an ER nurse. New emergencies, new situations, hospital politics, personal problems all together and a real read to the end!

Thanks, C.J.!!

CJ's "Angels of Mercy" novels center around the four women, and it would be best to start from the beginning with Lifelines and Warning Signs. That said, I dove in with the latter of those two and didn't find it difficult to catch up. I think by the time you get to Urgent Care that would be a little tougher since the relationships between the women and their loved ones have evolved a bit and grown more complex.

The medical material is fascinating. The author doesn't coddle the reader and explain every term, but the prose flows so well that regardless of this, I didn't feel lost. (I don't have the background to evaluate its accuracy, however.)

The personal drama felt a little more scattered than in Warning Signs and a little less focused, but that's a minor quibble. With four women dealing with love life and family issues, things get a bit hectic--it might have been better to serialize the stories a little more, even if that would be a tad less "realistic."

The suspense & thriller material is wonderfully handled, and definitely kept me guessing on the edge of my seat. Please note that there's some very dark and adult material in here, so don't pick up this book if you aren't willing to handle that! It deals with trauma of both sexual and non-sexual natures. This material isn't sensationalized, but it is necessary to the story and the characters.

In particular I enjoy the women of Angels of Mercy. They're each unique and unusual, with non-stereotypical quirks and foibles. Some of the men are equally interesting, although a few less so--not too unusual with this large a cast, however.


[NOTE: Review book provided by publisher]

This was an interesting medical novel. There is double dealing, death of a deliberate type and love and sex. Several nurses are hiding secrets that could harm themselves and there is a lot of tense suspicion. The medical details are authentic and I am forgiving about very small mistakes. Well worth the time spent in reading it .

this book is a page turner=fast paced and well woven together.Nora's story is a hard one to hear but shows there are many ways to give compassion. how all four women interact and support each other makes a great read. pick it up and enjoy!

It has been two years since Charge Nurse Nora Halloran of Angels of Mercy Medical Center in Pittsburgh was tortured and raped. She survived her ordeal and never told anyone what happened to her. Concealing her dark secret has impacted her relationship with her lover. Seth as he knows she holds back. Nora glances at the cemetery near the hospital where she sees the corpse of a woman with graffiti etched on her naked body and her eyes glued shut.

The nurse shudders not out of seeing the battered corpse, but because she knows the WARNING SIGNS that her rapist has returned as this is what he did to her. Nora must do what she failed to do two years ago by telling others especially Seth before someone else dies. She turns to her BFFs for help. However, Amanda struggles to save the life of a child; Gina struggles with living her life or that of her parents; and Lydia struggles with friendships as she uses streets smarts to keep people at a distance after an abusive childhood that included the murder of her mother and a hit man coming to kill the witness, her.

CJ Lyons has written an adrenalin pumping medical thriller that fans of Robin Cook will enjoy. URGENT CARE continues to chart the lives of the four friends at Angel of Mercy, but the focus this is mostly on this book is Nora. Each of the women have major issues and traumas they must contend with that they faced alone, but are beginning to understand they can have comrades in arms if they reach out of the darkness that threatens to engulf them. Fans will appreciate this fine tale as the four female friends face fight or flight, but supporting one another makes the choice easier.

Harriet Klausner

This was a great medical thriller! The characters "Seth" and "Nora" were great! Fast-paced read that is perfect for a cold Winter day! All of CJ Lyons books are just great!

C. J. Lyons, in her third book in the series, brings back her four female protagonists: Amanda Mason, 25, doing her last year as a medical student in the pediatric ICU at Angels of Mercy Medical Center in Pittsburgh; Gina Freeman, her housemate and an emergency medicine resident at the hospital; Lydia, an ER attending; Nora Halloran, charge nurse and sexual assault examiner, all very competent, sympathetic and strong women but each with her own vulnerabilities.

When the body of Karen Chisholm, a nurse anesthetist, is discovered just outside of the hospital building, beaten, raped, and savagely knifed to death, it awakens horrific memories in Nora, who was herself a victim of apparently the same man. The memories of her attack still provoke night terrors, panic attacks and shame. She had been held by her tormentor for two days before being left for dead, and still bears the awful emotional scars, not the least of which is that she now holds herself responsible for Karen's death, thinking that somehow if she had reported her assault two years prior, the man would be off the streets. Given the fact that she had never seen his face, nor heard his unaltered voice, that is unlikely, but her sense of guilt is no less strong for that.

The women face challenges in their professional and personal lives. The writing tends occasionally to lean toward clichés, especially in the earlier portions of the book, but the author's storytelling abilities swiftly overcame that aspect. The situations and scenarios described are sufficiently dramatic, if not inherently melodramatic, and the author's cv certainly gives her the background to know whereof she writes. [Among other things, she is trained in pediatric emergency medicine and has worked as a crisis counselor and a victim advocate, as do characters in the book.] The various story lines converge as the book nears its conclusion, with several lives in jeopardy amid nail-biting suspense. The protagonists are each sympathetic, professional and capable women, and when I started this book I felt that I already knew and admired them, and will look forward to the next book in this enjoyable series.

The ladies of Angel of Mercy hospital are back. This time the cases are personal. When Charge Nurse, Nora Halloran discovers Nurse Karen Chisholm nude body lying at the cemetery, her defenses go down and she is flooded by bad memories. Nora has a secret that she has kept for two years. No one knows about it. Karen's death causes a shocking revelation by Nora. She admits she killed Karen.

In the mean time, Gina Freeman's latest patient is a young boy by the name of Tank. His real name is Harold Trenton III. He is fourteen and he has meningococcemia. A flesh eating bacteria disease that is very contagious.

Amanda has problems of her own. A young woman by the name of Natalie has been brought to Mercy. No one knows anything about Natalie, other than she is deadly sick and has seizures. Amanda has made it her mission to determine what is wrong with Natalie before it is too late.

Urgent Care is the third medical novel by CJ Lyons. I really like this series. The characters are real and so are the patients, they treat. If you are a fan of television dramas like ER, Grey's Anatomy, House, and Scrubs than you need to check out this series. This series centers on four women...Dr. Lydia Fiore, Charge Nurse, Nora Halloran and Medical Student, Amanda Mason and Resident, Gina Freeman. It has been great, experiencing how these ladies have progressed from the first book, Lifelines. One thing that bummed me a little was that the sparkle from the two prior books didn't seem like it was all here in the latest. On the other hand I did like that the story line took on a more serious issue. This was Nora's moment. It was nice to see her walls come down and she begin to open up. CJ Lyons is exactly what the doctor ordered! I can't wait to read the next novel.