The Last Surgeon

I enjoy this author so imagine my surprise when it took me over half the book to become captured by it. So not my favorite. Story of nurse investigating the alleged suicide of her sister. This leads her to Dr. Nick Garrity who, himself, has questions about the mysterious disappearance of a war buddy. And it goes from there. I don't know why it took so long to get into it...was it the writing or the story. I don't know. Will not give up on Palmer. ( )

medical mysteries ( )

I'm a big fan of medical thrillers, and Michael Palmer did a great job of keeping the book moving along.

Jillian, a nurse, and Nick Garrity, a doctor who spends his time helping out vets with PTSD, investigate the death of Jillian's sister--a death that also seems to be tied to the disappearance of Umberto, Nick's friend from the army.

As the plot unfolds,we discover that all of the individuals involved in a surgery four years ago are dying off one by one. Although all of the deaths have been made to appear as accidents, things aren't quite adding up.

The characters are well written and the pace keeps us moving easily through the story.

Good read. ( )

I really enjoyed this book. I was hooked from the very first paragraph. It was a real page-turner and I finished it in 2 and a half days. I have enjoyed other books by this author. He reminds me of Robin Cook without all of the medical technology information. ( )

The story opens with Franz Koller planning another of his "non-kill" murders, a murder staged as a suicide. Koller has been hired by a client named Jericho to stage suicides and accidents. Nurse Belle Coates is forced to either kill herself or have both herself and her sister killed. She chooses to end her own life. Her sister Jillian Coates, a psych nurse, doesn’t believe it was a suicide and is determined to prove Belle was murdered.

Jillian finds cartoons referencing Dr. Nick Fury among Belle's possessions, an unusual find since Belle was not interested in cartoons. Eventually she finds out that Dr. Nick Garrity was nicknamed Dr. Fury during his service in Afghanistan. Garrity has PTSD bad enough to keep him from working as a traditional surgeon. Instead he runs the Helping Hand RV where he offers medical care to homeless vets and helps them with their disability applications with the VA. He also offers classes on how to beat the system at the VA. Nurse Junie Wright is his only employee and she keeps the RV stacked with supplies and maintains the cleanliness of the place. Garrity is obsessed with finding his friend and fellow soldier Umberto Vasquez who saved his life in Afghanistan. Vasquez seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. Garrity's PTSD is the result of a terrorist car bombing in Afganistan that killed 28 people including his fiancee. Only Garrity and Vasquez survived, thanks to Umberto’s quick action.

After Koller performs 2 more non-kills on a local surgeon and an anesthesiologist, Jillian, Junie, and Garrity believe that all of the deaths are related and work together to solve the mystery of the deaths. They find that all of those killed worked at the same hospital and that Vasquez was once a patient there.

There are plenty of twists and turns in this novel to keep you turning the pages. I highly recommend it. You won't be disappointed. ( )