The Second Opinion by Michael Palmer

Title:  The Second Opinion
Author:  Michael Palmer
Pages:  376
Genre:  Medical Thriller
Publisher:  St. Martin's, 2009
Series:  Stand Alone

Synopsis: Dr. Thea Sperelakis, diagnosed as a teen with Asperger's syndrome, has always been an outsider. She has a brilliant medical mind, and a remarkable recall of details, but her difficulty in dealing with hidden agendas and interpersonal conflicts have led her to leave the complex, money-driven dynamics of the hospital, and to embrace working with the poor, embattled patients of Doctors Without Borders.

Her father, Petros, is one of the most celebrated internal medicine specialists in the world, and the founder of the cutting-edge Sperelakis Center for Diagnostic Medicine at Boston's sprawling, powerful Beaumont Clinic.Thea's rewarding life in Africa is turned upside-down when Petros is severely injured by a hit-and-run driver. He is in the Beaumont ICU, in a deep coma. No one thinks he will survive. Thea must return home. Two of Petros' other children, both physicians, battle Thea and her eccentric brother, Dimitri, by demanding that treatment for their father be withheld. As Thea uncovers the facts surrounding the disaster, it seems more and more to be no accident. Petros, himself, is the only witness. Who would want him dead?  The answers are trapped in his brain . . . until he looks at Thea and begins slowly to blink a terrifying message.

In "The Second Opinion," Michael Palmer has created a cat-and-mouse game where one woman must confront a conspiracy of doctors to uncover an evil practice that touches every single person who ever has a medical test. With sympathetic characters and twists and betrayals that come from the most unlikely places, "The Second Opinion" will make you question...everything.

Review:  This book was pretty standard fare as far as thrillers go.  I admit that I didn't know who was to blame until the very end...but that is because the guilty party was so unlikely.

Meanwhile, Thea has met and fallen in love with an ex-police officer all within about two chapters.  As if that isn't enough to make it all seem like a bit of fantasy, people are getting killed by magnets.

This book was entertaining enough and a fairly quick read, but it follows such an expected formula.  I wouldn't go out of my way to read another one by this author.

Rating:  3.5 / 10