Fatal

Matt Rutledge is a small town doctor in Belinda, WV. He believes the local mining company is causing illness and death (such as his wife's and father's), and is looking real hard for the reason to get the mine shut down. Not a real popular idea amongst the folks in town.
Ellen Kroft is a retired school teacher who believes that a new vaccine that's being introduced nationwide (endorsed by the First Lady) is deadly. Nikki Solari, a coroner from Massachusetts, is in the town of Belinda to attend her best friend's funeral, when an attempt is made on her life. It seems she might have received some suspicious information about her best friend's death, and somebody wants that information at any cost.

The book can very well be reality in today's show more society. It is sad and scary, but it is extremely well written and gives the reader something very real to consider regarding a very real and dangerous situation. show less

Overall, it was a good 'story'...trying to link what everyone thought were three random medical issues, despite the fact that these three cases were located in different parts of the country. It started out really interesting...how can a case of paranoid patients with neurofibromas (one in W. Virginia and the other in Boston) be linked to a pregnant woman in Chicago who thought she had the flu, but ended up with a fever and diarrhea that caused bleeding from every part of her body? What I like about Mr. Palmer is his ability to explain medical procedures and and healthcare policies with ease. what I don't like about him is his tendency to ramble on and on seemingly going nowhere with his explanations. This book (the paperback) was 509 show more pages! The story should have ended around page 321...it dragged on unnecessarily. It was a REAL struggle to finish it. I plowed through because I was ready to connect the dots. He seemed to add incidents just to make it a bit more convoluted to throw us off, but it only served to make things more boring. I don't know if I can recommend it unless you are truly fascinated by environmental issues (toxic dumps, coal mines) and vaccine-related illnesses and the supposed connection to autism and other similar diseases. The first Michael Palmer book I read was A Heartbeat Away and I really enjoyed it so I set out to read all of his books. Fatal was my second book and I think I need to take a quick break and read something more fast-paced before I dive back into the rest of his books. show less

Overall, it was a good 'story'...trying to link what everyone thought were three random medical issues, despite the fact that these three cases were located in different parts of the country. It started out really interesting...how can a case of paranoid patients with neurofibromas (one in W. Virginia and the other in Boston) be linked to a pregnant woman in Chicago who thought she had the flu, but ended up with a fever and diarrhea that caused bleeding from every part of her body? What I like about Mr. Palmer is his ability to explain medical procedures and and healthcare policies with ease. what I don't like about him is his tendency to ramble on and on seemingly going nowhere with his explanations. This book (the paperback) was 509 show more pages! The story should have ended around page 321...it dragged on unnecessarily. It was a REAL struggle to finish it. I plowed through because I was ready to connect the dots. He seemed to add incidents just to make it a bit more convoluted to throw us off, but it only served to make things more boring. I don't know if I can recommend it unless you are truly fascinated by environmental issues (toxic dumps, coal mines) and vaccine-related illnesses and the supposed connection to autism and other similar diseases. The first Michael Palmer book I read was A Heartbeat Away and I really enjoyed it so I set out to read all of his books. Fatal was my second book and I think I need to take a quick break and read something more fast-paced before I dive back into the rest of his books. show less

Matthew Rutledge is convinced that the coal mine near his hometown of Belinda, West Virginia is dumping harmful chemicals, especially since the death of his wife of a rare form of cancer.
Nikki Solari, a Boston coroner comes to Belinda to attend the funeral of her roommate, Kathy. Nikki is run over by a car and is convinced someone is chasing her. When Kathy is autopsied, she has strange bumps on her face.
Matthew and Nikki are thrown together and must find out the truth of how these events are related. They soon find out they cannot go to the police. Where will they turn?

I particularly loved the characters in this book. I felt that Palmer did a great job of bringing out the essence of each one. The brothers in particular were my favorites (don't want to put in any spoilers). I found myself wondering why this was never made into a movie.

I generally enjoy his books, and I will continue to read them. On occasion his over-arching themes can get repetitive, but he is a good writer and he usually provides a good twist in his stories. I particularly like that he doesn't right series books (don't get me wrong I like a good series, but until I'm out of school I won't be able to keep up with a series . . . or worse yet I hate waiting for the next in a series to come out).

For most of the book, you had two storylines that didn't really seem related. They both had to do with medical issues, but there was no visible link. I really enjoyed how the two paths were joined together. It was unexpected, and I like being surprised when I read a book. This was the first Michael Palmer book I've read, and I'd definitely read more. I think a lot of them are medical thrillers, which I'm a sucker for anyway!

Dr. Matt Rutledge suspects that the local coal mine is behind a series of strange illnesses in his West Virginia town. Grandmother Ellen Kroft fights against a super-vaccine that's about to be implemented as the standard of care. Dr. Nikki Solari mourns the loss of her best friend and travels to West Virginia for her funeral... All of their stories come together as they are thrust into a deadly adventure to find the truth behind the disfiguring disease that's popping up in Belinda, WV. An action-packed thrill ride set in the mountains of West Virginia. Interesting characters and the scenic mountain backdrop add to this medical thriller that kept me turning the pages.