Review: Michael Palmer's Latest - The Last Surgeon!

The Last Surgeon


By Michael Palmer
St. Martin’s Press
ISBN: 9780312587499
373 Pages

To be Released on February 16, 2010!

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It may be a tossup between my first Michael Palmer book, The Sisterhood, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and his latest, The Last Surgeon, as to which will be the more memorable! The PTSD issue in his novel due out on February 16th is so very important for veterans and others who have gone through some type of traumatic experience in their lives. I applaud Dr. Palmer for not only covering PTSD, but also providing a good deal of information, through having his main character deal with it throughout the book.

Dr. Nick Garrity was a surgeon that could no longer perform surgery due to his PTSD. He acted now as a doctor running a clinic for the indigent along with a wonderful caring and competent nurse, Junie Wright. Nick also helped veterans in their efforts to get PTSD recognized by the Veterans Administration as a medical problem requiring coverage. Thess activities resulted in his realizing that when his best friend Umberto seemed to have vanished, there was also at least one other vet who was gone. Both of them had PTSD.

But that was just part of the nightmare and it all started to come together because of a stack of comic books...and Dr. Nick Fury...

Jillian Coates discovered those books when she was going through the things in her sister’s apartment after her death. She was told her sister had committed suicide but Jillian didn’t believe it and, if nobody else would help her, she’d start investigating herself—by finding out about Dr. Nick Fury and anything else that could lead to what had happened.

And then Jillian’s home was set on fire, supposedly accidentally, and all of her own things, plus her sister’s things were now gone.

Stakes were high for the individual behind what was happening. But the love of family and friends was strong and when Jillian found Nick Garrity, AKA Nick Fury, they quickly began to realize that there had to be a connection to all that was happening and they planned to figure it out!

But the main opponent in those efforts was a hired killer who was a master at having his victims’ deaths look like accidents and he had already invaded Jillian’s burnt home and introduced himself to her as a fire inspector...

It is the puzzle that pulls readers like myself again and again into suspenseful novels and The Last Surgeon presents an exciting trail to follow. I loved the Nick, Jillian and Junie characters, but especially another character that plays a small but important part--a young boy named Reggie who provided computer assistance behind the scenes and later was taken into a newly formed family unit! Cool!

Want a medical thriller with strong political connections to start your year? You just can’t go wrong with Michael Palmer’s latest up-all-night must-read! I loved it!

G. A. Bixler