Monday, August 22, 2016

Mercy: A Novel by Daniel Palmer and Michael Palmer

Dr. Julie Devereux is an ER doctor at a large Boston hospital and a divorced single mom.  While she is an outstanding doctor, she is also outspoken about death with dignity and finds herself unopposed to physician-assisted suicide.  Then one day her fiancé, Sam is injured in a motorcycle accident that leaves him a quadriplegic.  Sam wants to die and becomes depressed but Julie sees hope for a life together with Sam, even in his condition.  Ironically, Julie seeks help to pull Sam from his dark despair while Sam longs for death.  Then suddenly, Sam mysteriously dies from a heart attack.  The autopsy suggests Sam had a rare heart defect but as Julie researches the disease, she finds other, too frequent cases right there in her own hospital… all in patients with fatal health conditions.  Could someone be mercy killing patients in her hospital?  Who would benefit and to what lengths will they go to cover-up murder?  As she digs deeper into hospital records she is suddenly suspected of a mercy killing and her career is on the line.  But that doesn’t stop her investigation.  As she gets closer to discovering the killer her own life is threatened.  Now the stakes are high… find the killer or die trying.

Michael Palmer died in 2013 from a heart attack after a successful career as an author of medical thrillers.  He began writing in the 1970’s as a diversion from addictions to alcohol and prescription pain killers.  He conquered both addictions when he began writing.  His son Daniel has become a talented writer in his own right, and completed this novel that Michael began.  I’ve read several of Michael’s works and enjoyed them all but simply grew tired of the genre… but if you like medical thrillers, Michael Palmer was the best.

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